Enhanced identification of interesting points-of-interest

ABSTRACT

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for identifying points-of-interest. In one aspect, a method includes accessing, by a mobile device, two or more search results, each of the search results identifying a respective point-of-interest (POI), and determining a distance between the mobile device and each POI. The method may also include selecting a directional icon for each POI based on the distance to the respective POI, and displaying, by the mobile device, information identifying the POIs and, for each POI, the directional icon selected for the respective POI.

BACKGROUND

This specification relates to search engines.

Rather than visiting a local outlet of a popular regional or nationalchain, a person who is traveling in an unfamiliar area may instead wantto patronize nearby points-of-interest (“POIs”) which local residents,tourists, business travelers, or others might consider to beparticularly affiliated with or tied to that area. Such a POI may be,for example, a boutique or specialty shop, a locally advertised museum,a government building or site, a so-called “for locals” establishment ora “neighborhood gem,” or another attraction that is popular amongresidents of that area.

SUMMARY

Since a visitor to an area might consider those POIs which other peoplestrongly affiliate with that area to be interesting, this specificationrefers to these types of POIs as “interesting” POIs. Accordingly, thisspecification describes technologies relating to the identification ofinteresting POIs using a search engine, including processes thatidentify interesting POIs in response to a search query which identifiesa particular geographic area. The search query may be a general searchquery, or a particular query to identify the most interesting placesaround.

In attempting to identify these interesting POIs, an assumption is madethat the number of times that a POI has been selected in certain searchresults directly correlates with how interesting that POI is withrespect to a certain particular locality. Accordingly, for eachparticular locality, a measure of interest (or “score”) is assigned to aPOI based on the extent to which the POI has been selected in theseresults by past users, or based on an estimate of the past users'satisfaction with their selections from among these search results.Using search engine click data, scores are collected for multiple POIsacross multiple localities, where a high score for a particular POI inconnection with a particular locality denotes that past users of thesearch engine consider that POI to be highly affiliated with thatlocality, and thus very interesting.

Since past users of the search engine may, to some extent, also selectlinks to other POIs, the “interesting” designation is reserved for thosePOIs whose score generally meets, exceeds, or otherwise satisfies apredetermined score threshold, or for those POIs whose relative scoreexceeds the respective score of one or more other POIs. By contrast,this specification refers to those POIs whose score fails to satisfy thepredetermined score threshold, or relative score criteria, as either“less interesting,” “uninteresting,” or “not interesting.”

Since the characteristics that make a POI “interesting” are somewhatintangible and are generally inferred from past users' click behavior,techniques for identifying these POIs are often inherently differentthan, and require a different algorithm from, techniques which merelyidentify POIs based just on their associated user rating or ranking,popularity, or proximity. For example, a “long click” may occur when auser remains on a website associated with a particular POI for a minimumduration of time, for example sixty seconds. Such a POI may beconsidered to be more satisfying or interesting than a POI whose websitereceives fewer long clicks.

In one example use of the enhanced technique described by thisspecification, a visitor to Brooklyn or Seattle may enter the words“pizza” or “coffee,” respectively, as part of a search query. If thesearch query also includes the location of the user as a query term, thevisitor would likely be disappointed if the search results promoted apopular, national pizza or coffee chain that may have a franchiselocation in those areas, over a lesser-known, local business which localresidents might consider to be a neighborhood institution or gem.According to this enhanced identification technique, these smaller, goodquality, neighborhood businesses may be promoted in the search engineresults over more popular national chains based in part on anaffiliation that has been established between the identifiedneighborhood businesses and the location by measuring or monitoring thebehaviors of past users of the search engine. Monitoring of the pastusers' behaviors may include counting the number of times that the pastusers have selected links to these neighborhood businesses in certainsearch results, and/or by estimating how satisfied the past users werewith their selections.

The promotion of certain interesting POIs over other uninteresting POIsdoes not always disfavor nationally or regionally popular businesses. Infact, where past users of the search engine have established that, for acertain category of business, a local outlet of a nationally orregionally popular chain is the business which is most affiliated withthe local area, that local outlet may be designated as more interestingthan other, smaller local businesses. This same phenomenon may alsooccur where no competing small businesses of that category exist in thelocal area. Specifically, where the local outlet of a national chain isthe only business of its type in the geographic area, it may beconsidered, by default, the most interesting. This is true even if itsassociated score, though relatively high for one geographic area, wouldbe relatively low in another geographic area.

For example, and in contrast to the earlier example, a visitor to arural town may enter the terms “pizza” or “coffee” as part of a searchengine query which also includes the user's location as a query term. Asa result, a local outlet of a popular, national pizza or coffee chainmay be identified as the most interesting POI in the area for thatcategory of POIs, if no other POIs related to “pizza” or “coffee” arenearby, if past users of the search engine have selected links to thenational pizza or coffee chain more frequently than links to other localbusinesses in certain search results, or if the search engine estimatesthat past users are more satisfied with their selections of the links tothe national pizza or coffee chain over their selections of links tolocal businesses. Accordingly, a POI may be designated as interesting(or not) with respect to a particular locality regardless of whether thePOI is nationally or regionally popular.

As a precursor to identifying interesting POIs, a geographic region inwhich this identification technique is to be used (i.e., a continent,country, state or province, or city) is divided into smaller geographicareas, and one or more types of databases are generated or establishedfor each area. This specification also refers to these geographic areasinto which a larger geographic region is divided as “cells,”“localities”, “neighborhoods,” or “buckets.”

For each geographic area, the associated database (or databases) storesinformation identifying POIs and their associated scores, where eachscore is determined based upon the frequency and/or nature of aselection of certain search results associated with each respective POIby past users of the search engine. Generally, for a particular databaseassociated with a particular geographic area, POIs having higher scoreswill be considered by the enhanced identification technique to be moreaffiliated with the particular area (i.e., more interesting) than thosePOIs with lower scores.

Using these databases, local, interesting POIs may be distinguished fromother POIs which might generally receive more attention by users on anational or regional level, or from other local businesses which othersdo not yet consider to be especially affiliated with the geographicarea. Information identifying these POIs may be displayed to a user whomay be searching for a local neighborhood institution or gem, along withnavigation, advertisement, rating, or other contextual information thatmight aid the user in selecting a POI to visit.

Once the databases for multiple geographic areas have been populatedwith scores for various POIs (or, as discussed in more detail below, forvarious query term/POI pairs), these databases are used to identifyinteresting POIs for a particular geographic area. Initially, a targetlocation is selected, where the target location may be a user-selectedlocation, or a location where a user is currently or is expected to bein the future. Geographic areas near a target location are identified,as are candidate POIs which are scored in the databases associated withthese identified geographic areas. If query refinement criteria areinitially applied, identified POIs which do not satisfy these criteria,such as those POIs which are not associated with a selected category,may be filtered, deleted, or otherwise ignored from further processing.

The scores for the remaining identified POIs are determined from thedatabases associated with the selected geographic areas. The scores maybe adjusted or weighted using a fall-off function based on theirdistance to the target location, based on their proximity to an expectedtravel destination of a user, user reviews (e.g., “star” ratings), orusing other criteria, and the scores are combined or otherwiseaggregated to generate a combined score for each remaining identifiedPOI. These POIs are ranked based on their combined scores, and thosePOIs with the highest scores, or whose scores exceed a certainthreshold, are designated as interesting. Information which identifiesthe interesting POIs is provided for display to the user, as is othercontextual information which may aid the user in selecting a POI tovisit.

In one exemplary implementation, the geographic area definitions, atleast some of the databases associated with selected geographic areas,and at least some detailed information regarding the interesting POIs(such as review information rating the interesting POIs, or URLsassociated with the interesting POIs) are pre-cached to the user'smobile device. When pre-caching is implemented, information identifyingthe interesting POIs is immediately available for display when the userfirst looks at or activates the user interface of the mobile device.Since the pre-caching of information occurs in the background (i.e.,without user involvement), the user is not required to type or otherwiseenter information into their mobile device before viewing informationthat may be relevant to the surrounding area, nor is the user requiredto wait to view the relevant information. As the user interacts with themobile device and begins to make selections or enter query refinementcriteria, the mobile device may respond to the user's actions bydeleting certain pre-cached information from the local cache, bypre-caching other new information to the mobile device, or by adjustingsettings to tailor pre-caching behavior (e.g., to pre-cache more or lessdetailed information relative to other pre-cached information).

Information identifying the POIs may be pre-cached to the mobile deviceand provided to the user through the user interface. When the locationof the mobile device can be determined or estimated, other informationmay also be provided, such as a distance and a direction from the mobiledevice to each POI. For each POI, one convenient approach foraggregating and conveying directional information is to provide agraphical directional icon, such as a two-dimensional orthree-dimensional arrow icon, which is animated to remain pointed towarda POI regardless of the orientation of the mobile device.

In addition to or instead of merely pointing toward a POI, thedirectional indication may also indicate a distance to or anaccessibility of the POI. For instance, instead of an arrow icon whichmight indicate that a user should travel in a certain direction to reacha POI, a bull-eye icon might indicate that the user is already nearby aPOI, or an “X” icon might indicate that the POI is too far away toattempt to reach, or that the POI is not handicapped accessible.

In addition to indicating relative direction, other contextualinformation about a POI may be gleaned from the directional icon, basedon the type of icon selected for a POI, or based on certain visualcharacteristics of the icon. For example, the color, shape, motion, orother visual characteristics of an icon may reflect the distance to aPOI, may indicate whether the POI is sponsored (i.e., whether the ownerof a POI has paid for the certain advertisement content to appear in thesearch results), or may indicate that a certain event or condition isoccurring at the POI. For example, a flashing icon may indicate that afriend of the user is at a certain identified POI.

In one example, the motion of a directional icon may be used todistinguish POIs which are closer to the user's current location thanothers, or to distinguish POIs which are within a certain predetermineddistance. Specifically, the directional icon associated with the closestPOI, or the directional icons associated with the POIs located within apredetermined distance, may be animated to bounce or pulsate. Where suchmotion is used, a single glance at a particular directional iconindicates not only whether the associated POI is close, but also, basedon the relative position of the directional icon on the user interface,how interesting the associated POI is relative to the other identifiedPOIs. The user may find it easier and more enjoyable to obtaininformation about a POI by quickly glancing at its associated icon,rather than by reading textual data which describes this sameinformation, or which provides more detail than is required to make asnap decision.

Because graphical icons are intended to allow a user to quickly obtaininformation about POIs and to visually filter or distinguish identifiedPOIs based on this information, a unique problem may occur when a largenumber of POIs are simultaneously displayed on the user interface.Specifically, if multiple directional icons are displayed, the user maysuffer from ‘information overload’ if each directional icon includesseveral visual characteristics that are each intended to attract or grabthe user's attention.

While a single attention-grabbing directional icon among a large numberof directional icons may help the user quickly select a POI to visit, ifmost or all of the directional icons are attention-grabbing, the userwould no longer be able to quickly visually filter one POI from another.Accordingly, the selection of attention-grabbing elements or visuallystimulating characteristics of a directional icon may be performeddiscriminatively, to take the user's limited attention into account, andto increase the user's ability to visually filter or distinguish amongmultiple POIs, especially where each POI may be noteworthy for differentreasons.

Moreover, the identification of interesting POIs may be enhanced byboosting the relevance of POIs that have been rated by past visitors ofthe POI, by local residents of a particular geographic area in which thePOI is located, and/or by other past users who have characteristics orpreferences similar to those of the user. Since the usefulness of theidentification technique is increased when more ratings are available,users should be encouraged to assign more ratings by removing thebarriers which typically prevent or discourage potential raters fromcritiquing a POI that they have visited.

From the perspective of a potential rater, the hassles associated withtyping or otherwise entering information which identifies a particularPOI to be rated, or which disambiguates a nearby POI that is to be ratedfrom other POIs which are similarly named but that are nowhere near theuser, are often sufficiently burdensome to prevent the potential raterfrom going through the trouble of assigning a rating. For instance, toassign a rating to a particular outlet of a global coffee shop chain inwhich a potential rater is standing, the potential rater might need toenter the name of the chain, wait, enter the city of the particularoutlet, wait, enter the street on which the particular outlet islocated, wait, then perhaps disambiguate among multiple outletsassociated with the street, including outlets which are nowhere near theuser. This problem is exacerbated when the potential rater is notsufficiently knowledgeable of the specific location to the extent thatwould be necessary to disambiguate among multiple like-named outlets.Removing the burdens associated with manually identifying a particularPOI may make potential raters more inclined to rate POIs.

To accomplish this, a rating control may be automatically displayed onthe user interface of the mobile device, to allow the user to quicklyassign a rating to the POI, as a user's mobile device physicallyapproaches the stored location of a POI, or perhaps as other criterionare satisfied. Since POIs are automatically identified based in partupon their proximity to the user, a user is no longer required to enteridentification information for POIs visited by the user. Such anapproach encourages users to enter more ratings for more POIs. Theseratings may be factored into the scores that are associated with POIs inthe various geographic-area-specific databases, rendering low-rated orhigh-rated POIs less likely or more likely to be considered interestingor relevant, respectively, than other unrated or differently rated POIs.

The enhanced techniques described in this specification may be used toidentify POIs that are predicted to be of interest to a user. Some ofthese approaches identify POIs based on the user's own past behavior,while others base their identifications on the behavior of other userswho have searched for or visited a particular POI in the past, and whohave similarities with the user. In either case, once a POI isidentified, the user's mobile device displays information that may beused to entice the user to travel outside of their present location inorder to visit the POI. For example, by displaying helpful navigationinformation or detailed review, rating, or other contextual information,the user interface may display information that allows the user todecide that a desire or need will be satisfied at the POI, and that theuser's time would be well spent by traveling to the POI.

Aside from displaying information regarding POIs that the user ispredicted to be interested in, the mobile device may be used to identifya nearby POI that the user is near and can see, and thus has an actualinterest in, and to display corresponding contextual information. Thus,in addition to identifying POIs based on the user's own past behavior oron past behavior of other users, the mobile device can also identifyPOIs based on the user's present behavior (i.e., based on what the useris looking at when a control is selected), and can display detailedinformation regarding these identified POIs. In this regard, theenhanced identification technique described by this specification may beused in a greater number of situations, facilitating informationretrieval regarding POIs that the user may be interested in (when theyhave not made a specific identification), or regarding POIs that theuser is actually interested in or becomes interested in, in real-time ornear real-time, as their interest is piqued.

The identification of a nearby POI by a user could possibly be a betterindication that the POI is interesting to the user than other techniqueswhich identify POIs based on past behaviors. That being said, however, auser may manually identify a POI as appearing interesting, may bepresented with detailed information about that POI, may determine basedon reading the detailed information that the POI is not in factinteresting, and then may wish to revert to one or more other techniquesto suggest other POIs that may interest them, based on their or others'past behaviors.

To identify a POI that piques their interest, the user may point theirmobile device at the POI and press a designated control on the device.This identification may occur when the user walks or drives by a POIthat strikes them as being interesting. This specification refers to thedesignated control that is used for this purpose as a “Pronto button,”which may be a physical button, a soft key, or a software element alone.Upon pressing the Pronto button, the GPS location and compass heading ofthe mobile device are determined, and information regarding one or moreof the POIs that are within the field of view of the mobile device isselected and displayed on the user interface.

If the information regarding the POIs is not stored on the mobile devicewhen the Pronto button is pressed, that information may be pre-cached tothe mobile device. Where pointing the mobile device means pointing acamera of the mobile device at the POI, the user interface of the mobiledevice may display a live video feed or image taken at the time thePronto button is selected, and detailed information about the POI may beoverlaid on the screen.

In general, another innovative aspect of the subject matter described inthis specification may be implemented in methods that include theactions of generating a first search engine results page which includeslinks to one or more POIs that satisfy a query, receiving one or moresignals indicating that a link to a particular POI was selected by auser, and responding to receiving the one or more signals by selectingone or more geographic areas. For each of the selected geographic areas,an increment value and a score associated with the particular POI aredetermined, the score is incremented by the increment value, and theincremented score is stored in association with information identifyingthe particular POI, in one or more databases. The incremented scoresstored in the one or more databases are used to generate a second searchengine results page. Other implementations of this aspect includecorresponding systems, apparatus, and computer programs, configured toperform the actions of the methods, encoded on computer storage devices.

These and other implementations may each optionally include one or moreof the following features. For instance, the one or more databases mayinclude a query database, the query may include a query term entered bythe user, and the first search engine results page may include one ormore links to the POIs which satisfy the query, overlaid on a map.Selecting the one or more geographic areas may further includedetermining that the one or more geographic areas are disposed at ornear a center of the map. The score may be associated with aquery-result pair including the query term and the particular POI, theincremented score for each of the selected geographic areas may bestored in association with the query-result pair in the query database,and the incremented scores stored in the query database may be used togenerate the second search engine results page. The actions may includedetermining a scale of the map, and determining the increment value mayfurther include selecting a value of zero as the increment value whenthe scale is determined not to exceed a predetermined threshold. Theactions may also include providing a search engine query page whichincludes a pre-query map, and a query field for the user to enter thequery terms, where the first search engine results page further includesone or more links to the POIs which satisfy the query, overlaid on apost-query map.

In other implementations, the actions may include determining ageographic location of the particular POI. The one or more databases mayinclude a POI database. The first search engine results page may includeone or more links to the POIs which satisfy the query, presented in alist of search results or overlaid on a map. Selecting the one or moregeographic areas may further include determining that the one or moregeographic areas are at or near the geographic location of theparticular POI. The incremented score for each of the selectedgeographic areas may be stored in association with the particular POI,in the POI database, and the incremented scores stored in the POIdatabase may be used to generate the second search engine results page.Determining the geographic location of the particular POI may furtherinclude determining geographic coordinates of the particular POI basedon accessing a location database which stores information identifyingPOIs, and geographic coordinates associated with each identified POI.

In other implementations, using the incremented scores stored in the oneor more databases to generate a second search engine results page mayfurther include identifying candidate POIs stored for a targetgeographic area in the one or more databases, determining the scoreassociated with each candidate POI, and selecting, as relevant POIs, thecandidate POIs whose associated scores satisfy a threshold, where thesecond search engine results page may include links to the relevantPOIs. The signal may further indicate a duration between an initialclick on the link by the user, and a subsequent click by the user, anddetermining the increment value may include selecting, as the incrementvalue, a value which is proportional to the duration.

In other implementations, the signal further may indicate aclick-through-rate of the link, and determining the increment value mayinclude selecting, as the increment value, a value which is proportionalto the click-through-rate. Determining the increment value may includeselecting a first increment value for a first selected geographic area,and selecting a second, lesser increment value for the selectedgeographic areas which surround the first geographic area. Determiningthe second increment value may further include applying a Gaussianfunction or a parabolic function to the first increment value.

In other implementations, the actions may also include determining thatinformation identifying the particular POI is stored in the one or moredatabases for more than a predetermined quantity of the geographicareas. For each of the geographic areas in which the informationidentifying the particular POI is stored, a decrement value may bedetermined, the score may be decremented by the decrement value, and thedecremented score may be stored in association with the information, inthe one or more databases.

In other implementations, the actions may also include identifying aselected category associated with the link, and for the particular POI,incrementing a category score of the selected category by apredetermined value and storing, for the particular POI, the incrementedcategory score in association with the selected category in a categorydatabase which stores information identifying the POIs, candidatecategories associated with the particular POI, and category scoresassociated with the candidate categories. The actions may furtherinclude selecting, for the particular POI, a predominant category havinga highest category score, and storing, for each of the selectedgeographic areas, the predominant category in association with theinformation identifying the particular POI, in the one or moredatabases. Multiple, contiguous geographic areas may be defined within ageographic region, with each exhibiting a uniform size and shape. Firstand second signals that indicate that the link to the particular POI wasselected by the user at a first time and a second time, respectively,may be received, and the second signal may be filtered. The incrementvalue may be normalized into a range between 0 to 1, inclusive.

In general, another innovative aspect of the subject matter described inthis specification may be implemented in methods that include theactions of identifying POIs associated with one or more of multiple,selected geographic areas, and determining, for each of the multiplegeographic areas, a score associated with the identified POIs. Theactions also include generating a combined score for each identified POIbased on the determined scores associated with the respective POI,selecting a subset of the identified POIs based at least on the combinedscores, and displaying a link to the POIs in the subset. Otherimplementations of this aspect include corresponding systems, apparatus,and computer programs, configured to perform the actions of the methods,encoded on computer storage devices.

These and other embodiments may each optionally include one or more ofthe following features. For instance, the actions may also includedetermining a location of a mobile device, selecting the multiplegeographic areas based on the determined location, and receiving, by themobile device, one or more databases which store the score associatedwith the identified POIs, for each of the multiple geographic areas. Theactions may also include selecting a first geographic area in which themobile device is located, and selecting a second geographic areaadjacent to the first geographic area. Selecting the multiple geographicareas may further include identifying multiple geographic areas whichare assigned a non-zero value by a fall-off function.

In other implementations, the actions may include determining anexpected destination of the mobile device, and selecting the multiplegeographic areas based on the expected destination, or receiving a queryrefinement, and performing a search query using the query refinement toidentify the POIs that are associated with the one or more of themultiple, selected geographic areas, and that that satisfy the queryrefinement. Performing the search query may further include performing aprefix search using the query refinement. The query refinement mayrestrict the search query to one or more POI categories. Generating thecombined score may further include applying a fall-off function to thescores associated with the identified POIs for each of the multiplegeographic areas. The actions may include determining a speed of amobile device, and selecting the fall-off function based on thedetermined speed.

In other implementations, the fall-off function may be a Gaussian orparabolic function. The actions may include determining a speed of amobile device, determining whether the speed of the mobile deviceexceeds a predetermined threshold, selecting a first quantity ofgeographic areas when the speed of the mobile device exceeds apredetermined threshold, and selecting a second, lesser quantity ofgeographic areas when the speed of the mobile device does not exceed thepredetermined threshold. Generating the combined score for eachidentified POI may further include summing the determined scoresassociated with each identified POI.

In other implementations, the actions may also include, for one or morecategories each associated with one or more of the identified POIs,generating a combined category score, selecting a subset of thecategories based on the combined category scores, displaying a linkidentifying the categories in the subset, and receiving a signalindicating that a user has selected one of the categories in the subset,where the subset of the identified POIs is selected further based on theuser-selected category. The actions may also include detecting adirection of travel of a mobile device; and selecting the multiplegeographic areas based on the detected direction of travel.

In general, another innovative aspect of the subject matter described inthis specification may be implemented in methods that include theactions of receiving a query term from a user and identifying queryterm/POI pairs associated with one or more of multiple, selectedgeographic areas, the query term/POI pair including the received queryterm. For each of the multiple geographic areas, a score associated withthe identified query term/POI pairs may be determined. A combined scorefor each identified query term/POI pair may be generated based on thecollective scores associated with the respective query term/POI pair inthe multiple geographic areas, a subset of the identified POIs may beselected based at least on the combined scores, and a link to the POIsassociated with the identified POIs in the subset may be displayed.Other implementations of this aspect include corresponding systems,apparatus, and computer programs, configured to perform the actions ofthe methods, encoded on computer storage devices.

In general, another innovative aspect of the subject matter described inthis specification may be implemented in methods that include theactions of accessing, by a mobile device, two or more search results,each of the search results identifying a respective point-of-interest(POI), and determining a distance between the mobile device and eachPOI. The actions may also include selecting a directional icon for eachPOI based on the distance to the respective POI, and displaying, by themobile device, information identifying the POIs and, for each POI, thedirectional icon selected for the respective POI. Other implementationsof this aspect include corresponding systems, apparatus, and computerprograms, configured to perform the actions of the methods, encoded oncomputer storage devices.

These and other implementations may each optionally include one or moreof the following features. For instance, the actions may also includeselecting a first type of directional icon for a first subset of thePOIs, and selecting one or more different types of directional icons fora second subset of the POIs. The first type of directional icon may be aquickly bouncing icon, a quickly pulsating icon, a color icon, a highcontrast icon, a long-tailed arrow icon, or a large size directionalicon. The different types of directional icons may include a staticicon, a slowly bouncing icon, a slowly pulsating icon, a black-and-whiteor grayscale icon, a short-tailed arrow icon, or a small sizedirectional icon.

In other implementations, the first subset may include n POIs which areclosest to the mobile device, with n being any positive integer, and thesecond subset may include m POIs which are not members of the firstsubset, with m being any positive integer. Alternatively, the firstsubset may include n POIs which are within a predetermined distance ofthe mobile device, and the second subset may include m POIs which arenot within the predetermined distance of the mobile device.Alternatively, the first subset may include n POIs which are sponsored,and the second subset may include m POIs which are not sponsored. Theactions may also include receiving a signal which identifies one or moreof the POIs, where the first subset may include the one or more POIsidentified by the signal, and the second subset may include the POIswhich are not identified by the signal.

In other implementations, the actions may also include detecting that anorientation of the mobile device has changed, where selecting thedirectional icon for each POI further includes selecting different typesof arrow-shaped directional icons for first and second POIs, anddisplaying the information further includes animating the differenttypes of arrow-shaped directional icons to remain pointed toward theassociated POIs despite the change in the orientation of the mobiledevice. Determining the distance between the mobile device and each POImay further include determining the distance between the mobile deviceand a first POI at a first time and at a second time, and selecting thedirectional icon may further include selecting first and second bouncingarrow-shaped directional icons at the first and second times,respectively. The second arrow-shaped directional icon may be animatedto bounce at a faster rate or a slower rate than the first arrow-shapeddirectional icon, when the distance between the mobile device and thefirst POI decreases or increases, respectively, between the first timeand the second time.

In other implementations, determining the distance between the mobiledevice and each POI may further include determining the distance betweenthe mobile device and a particular POI at a first time and at a secondtime, and selecting the directional icon for each POI based on thedistance to the respective POI may further include selecting a firsttype of directional icon for the particular POI at the first time, withthe first type of directional icon bouncing or pulsating at a firstrate, exhibiting a first color or contrast characteristic, having afirst arrow tail length, or having a first size characteristic. When thedistance between the mobile device and the particular POI increasesbetween the first time and the second time, the actions includeselecting a second type of directional icon for the particular POI atthe second time, with the second type of directional icon bouncing orpulsating slower than the first rate, exhibiting a diminished color orcontrast characteristic relative to the first characteristic, having asecond arrow tail length which is longer than the first arrow taillength, or having a second size characteristic which is smaller than thefirst size characteristic. When the distance between the mobile deviceand the particular POI decreases between the first time and the secondtime, the actions include selecting a third type of directional icon forthe particular POI at the second time, with the third type ofdirectional icon bouncing or pulsating faster than the first rate,exhibiting an increased color or contrast characteristic relative to thefirst characteristic, having a second arrow tail length which is shorterthan the first arrow tail length, or having a second size characteristicwhich is larger than the first size characteristic.

In other implementations, determining the distance between the mobiledevice and each POI may further include determining the distance betweenthe mobile device and a particular POI at a first time and at a secondtime. Selecting the directional icon for each POI based on the distanceto the respective POI may further include selecting a first type ofdirectional icon for the particular POI at the first time, the firsttype of directional icon being a slowly bouncing, slowly pulsating,black-and-white or grayscale, short-tailed arrow, or small sizedirectional icon, and, when the distance between the mobile device andthe particular POI decreases between the first time and the second time,selecting a second type of directional icon for the particular POI atthe second time, the second type of directional icon being a quicklybouncing, quickly pulsating, color, high contrast, long-tailed arrow, orlarge size directional icon.

In other implementations, each of the search results may identify a POIwhich is near the mobile device. The directional icon may be selectedfrom among multiple directional icons. Selecting the directional iconfor each POI may further include selecting a bouncing arrow-shapeddirectional icon for a first POI, and a static arrow-shaped directionalicon for a second POI. The actions may also include accessing sponsoredcontent associated with one or more of the POIs, where displaying theinformation may further include displaying the sponsored contentassociated with the one or more POIs. Selecting the directional icon mayfurther include selecting a bulls-eye or star-shaped directional iconfor a first POI when the distance between the mobile device and thefirst POI is less than a predetermined distance. The actions may alsoinclude receiving a signal specifying a location of the mobile device,where the two or more search results are generated based on the locationof the mobile device.

In general, another innovative aspect of the subject matter described inthis specification may be implemented in methods that include theactions of generating, by a search engine, two or more search results,each of the search results identifying a respective POI, determining adistance between a mobile device and each POI, and selecting adirectional icon for each POI based on the distance to the respectivePOI. The actions may also include generating code which, when invoked bythe mobile device, causes the mobile device to display informationidentifying the POIs and, for each POI, the directional icon selectedfor the respective POI, and transmitting the code from the search engineto the mobile device. Other implementations of this aspect includecorresponding systems, apparatus, and computer programs, configured toperform the actions of the methods, encoded on computer storage devices.

In general, another innovative aspect of the subject matter described inthis specification may be implemented in methods that include theactions of determining a location of a mobile device, automaticallyidentifying a POI located within a predetermined distance of thelocation, providing, on a user interface of the mobile device, a ratingcontrol for allowing the user to rate the identified POI, and receivingthe rating for the identified POI from the user, using the ratingcontrol. Other implementations of this aspect include correspondingsystems, apparatus, and computer programs, configured to perform theactions of the methods, encoded on computer storage devices.

These and other implementations may each optionally include one or moreof the following features. For instance, the identified POI may beautomatically identified and the rating control may be provided withoutrequiring the user to input identification information associated withthe identified POI. The actions may also include storing the rating inassociation with the identified POI, or automatically identifying one ormore candidate POIs located within the predetermined distance of thelocation of the mobile device, and providing information identifying thecandidate POIs on the user interface, where the identified POI furtherincludes a user selected one of the candidate POIs.

In other implementations, the actions may also include providing, on theuser interface, a disambiguation control for identifying the candidatePOIs and for allowing the user to select the one of the candidate POIs,and identifying the user selected one of the candidate POIs using thedisambiguation control. The actions may also include determining acategory associated with the identified POI, determining a criterionassociated with the category, and determining that the criterionassociated with the category has been satisfied, where rating control isprovided on the user interface based on determining that the criterionhas been satisfied. The criterion may be a minimum continuous lingertime of the mobile device within the predetermined distance of the POI,a current time-of-day requirement, or a current day-of-the-weekrequirement. The rating control may be a star rating bar.

In other implementations, the actions may include incrementing ordecrementing a score associated with the POI in one or more databasesassociated with a geographic area based on the rating, or clustering theuser with other users of a search engine, based on a similarity of therating with the ratings for the POI collectively received from the otherusers. The actions may include identifying a recommended POI that theother users rated highly, and providing information identifying thesecond POI on the user interface, or, responsive to automaticallyidentifying the POI, providing, on the user interface, a rating interestcontrol for allowing the user to indicate whether they are interested inrating the identified POI. Upon detecting a user interaction with therating interest control, and determining that the user has indicatedthat they are interested in rating the identified POI, based on the userinteraction, the rating control may be provided on the user interfacebased on determining that the user has indicated that they areinterested in rating the identified POI.

In other implementations, the actions may include, responsive toreceiving the rating, providing a text entry field on the user interfacefor allowing the user to input comments regarding the identified POI.Automatically identifying the POI may further include defining a zone ofinterest within the predetermined distance from the location,determining geographic coordinates associated with the zone of interest,and querying a POI directory using the geographic coordinates associatedwith the zone of interest, the POI directory storing POIs and geographiccoordinates associated with the POIs.

In general, another innovative aspect of the subject matter described inthis specification may be implemented in methods that include theactions of determining a position and a heading of a mobile device,defining a zone of interest based on the position and heading of themobile device, identifying one or more points of interest (POIs) thatare located within the zone of interest, determining, for each of theidentified POIs, a distance between the mobile device and the respectivePOI, selecting one or more of the identified POIs based on thedistances, and displaying information identifying the selected POIs on auser interface of the mobile device. Other implementations of thisaspect include corresponding systems, apparatus, and computer programs,configured to perform the actions of the methods, encoded on computerstorage devices.

These and other implementations may each optionally include one or moreof the following features. For instance, the actions may also includedetermining, for each of the identified POIs, an angle between themobile device and the respective POI, where the one or more of theidentified POIs are selected further based on the determined angles.Selecting the one or more of the identified POIs may further includescaling, for each of the identified POIs, the distance between themobile device and the respective POI based on the angle, where the oneor more of the identified POIs are selected based on the scaleddistances. Scaling the distance between the mobile device and therespective POI based on the angle may further include increasing thescaled distance as a magnitude of the angle increases. Selecting the oneor more of the identified POIs may further include scaling, for each ofthe identified POIs, the distance between the mobile device and therespective POI based on a combination of the angle and the determineddistance, where the one or more of the identified POIs are selectedbased on the scaled distances.

In other implementations, the zone of interest may be defined based on afield of view of a camera of the mobile device. Selecting one or more ofthe identified POIs may further include selecting the one or moreidentified POIs which are closest to the mobile device. The zone ofinterest may represent a two-dimensional area or a three-dimensionalvolume, or may include a triangle or a circular sector, with one vertexof the zone of interest occurring at the position of the mobile device.The triangle or circular sector may extend 60° around the heading of themobile device, and the height or radius of the triangle or circularsector, respectively, may extend one quarter of a mile. The actions mayalso include determining a speed of the mobile device, and selecting theheight or radius of the triangle or circular sector, respectively, basedon the determined speed of the mobile device.

In other implementations, the actions may also include displaying one ormore user reviews or ratings for the selected POIs on the user interfaceof the mobile device. Identifying the one or more POIs may furtherinclude identifying coordinates which define the zone of interest, andquerying a database that stores POIs and coordinates associated witheach POI, using the coordinates which define the zone of interest. Theactions may include pre-caching information associated with the selectedPOIs to the mobile-device, responsive to selecting the one or more ofthe identified POIs, or the actions may include generating an imageusing a camera on the mobile device, where displaying the informationfurther comprises overlaying the information over the image.

In other implementations, the actions may include determining that noPOIs are located within the zone of interest, and redefining the zone ofinterest based on determining that no POIs are located within the zoneof interest, where identifying the one or more POIs that are locatedwithin the zone of interest may further include identifying the one ormore POIs that are located within the redefined zone of interest.Determining the heading of the mobile device may further includedetecting a compass heading using a compass on the mobile device,determining a path of the mobile device using a global positioningsystem (GPS) module on the mobile device, or determining a compassheading toward which a camera of the mobile device is pointing.

The details of one or more implementations of the subject matterdescribed in this specification are set forth in the accompanyingdrawings and the description below. Other potential features, aspects,and advantages of the subject matter will become apparent from thedescription, the drawings, and the claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a contextual diagram demonstrating the identification ofinteresting POIs using an example of a mobile device.

FIGS. 2, 7, 9, 13, 17, 18 and 22 illustrate example processes.

FIG. 3 illustrates a example of a system for identifying interestingPOIs.

FIGS. 4 to 6, 8, 12A to 12C, 14A to 14G, 16, 20, 21, and 26 illustrateexample user interfaces.

FIG. 10 illustrates the selection of geographic areas.

FIG. 11 illustrates score calculation for POIs.

FIG. 15 illustrates the selection of directional icons.

FIGS. 19 and 23 to 25 illustrate identifying a POI within a zone ofinterest.

FIG. 27 illustrates an example computing device.

Like reference numbers represent corresponding parts throughout.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 illustrates an example overview of the results of identifyinginteresting POIs using a mobile device 101, as shown from theperspective of a user who has entered an unfamiliar geographic area.Specifically, an application executing on the mobile device 101generates a user interface 102 which displays information identifyingnearby interesting POIs. The POIs are identified as being interestingbased on information stored in one or more databases associated with thegeographic area, and/or one or more surrounding areas.

The user interface 102 displays entries 104 a to 104 c, which provideinformation identifying nearby POIs that are considered interesting, andthat are associated with the user-selected category “Coffee.” Theinteresting POIs include “Local Coffee” (associated with entry 104 a),“Pierre's Restaurant” (associated with entry 104 b), and “MegabuxxCoffee” (associated with entry 104 c). In this example, the entries 104a to 104 c are displayed in a specific order, ranked from mostinteresting to least interesting based on aggregated scores associatedwith each POI. “Local Coffee,” the POI with the highest score among thethree identified POIs, is considered to be more interesting than“Megabuxx Coffee,” since the associated entry 104 a is positioned at thetop of the user interface 102.

In addition to information identifying a corresponding POI, each ofentries 104 a to 104 c may include a past-user rating 106 of thecorresponding POI (e.g., obtained from a rating application ordatabase), a distance indicator 107 which specifies the distance betweenthe mobile device and the corresponding POI (e.g., expressed in feet,meters, kilometers or miles, or in units of time when the speed of themobile device 101 is known or may be estimated), a directional icon(e.g., as static arrow icon 109 or bouncing arrow icon 110) which pointstoward the corresponding POI, a review control 111 which allows the userto rate the POI without typing in the name of the POI, POI-providedinformation 112, advertising information, and/or other contextualinformation.

The type and arrangement of elements on the user interface 102 areselected to allow the user to quickly visually filter among a largeamount of information that may be presented on the display. Forinstance, information associated with more interesting POIs may bedisplayed at the top, the bottom, the center, the right or the left ofthe user interface 102, allowing the user to look at this portion of thedisplay first when they are scanning for interesting POIs. Font or iconcharacteristics, color and/or motion may also be used to highlightcertain information, allowing the user to quickly identify data that maybe useful at a particular moment.

For example, by glancing at the POI entry 104 a associated with “LocalCoffee,” the user can quickly determine that “Local Coffee” isconsidered to be the most interesting POI in the area for a particularcategory of POIs (e.g. coffee shops), that previous reviewers of the POIhave given it a “three out of four star” rating, and that it is locatedone hundred feet approximately straight ahead, relative to the currentposition and heading of the mobile device 101.

Similarly, by glancing at the POI entry 104 b, the user can quicklydetermine that “Pierre's Restaurant” is considered to be lessinteresting than the “Local Coffee” (but more interesting than otherPOIs), that previous reviewers of the POI have given it a “four out offour star” rating, and that it is located fifty feet ahead and to theleft relative to the current position and heading of the mobile device101. Arrow icon 110 is animated to appear to bounce or vibrate, alertingthe user that the POI is nearby (i.e., within a predetermined distance),or is the closest of the identified POIs. In this regard, when the userfirst looks at the user interface 102, the bouncing arrow icon 110 maygrab the user's attention, even though the POI is considered to be lessinteresting than other POIs. Depending upon their own preferences andcircumstances, the user may use this information to decide to visit acloser, less interesting POI instead of a further, more interesting POI.

Glancing at the POI entry 104 c, the user can quickly determine that“Megabuxx” is considered less interesting than the other two displayedPOIs, that previous reviewers of the POI have given it a “one out offour star” rating, and that the POI is located one hundred and five feetahead and to the right relative to the current position and heading ofthe mobile device 101. In addition to the contextual informationprovided in the POI entries 104 a and 104 b, the POI entry 104 cincludes sponsored information 112 provided by the owner of the POI,which may include advertising or other sponsored content. In thisinstance, the sponsored information (“Look For Us Near the Flagpole”)identifies a local landmark that the owner of the POI may use to steercustomers to their business.

Although in this illustrated example the sponsored information istextual, in other examples this information may include image or videocontent. Furthermore, although the user interface 102 is illustrated asincluding three POI entries, in other implementations fewer or moreentries may be shown, where the number of entries shown may depend uponthe number of nearby POIs that are identified as interesting. The userinterface 102 may also display entries for POIs that are located behindor to the side of the user or mobile device. The directional icons (e.g.arrow icon 109 and bouncing arrow icon 110) may, as illustrated, beanimated to rotate within a single plane, to thereby point to theirassociated POI in two dimensions, or they may be animated to appear torotate inside of a three-dimensional cube or sphere, to thereby point totheir associated POI in three dimensions as the user rolls, tilts, orotherwise reorients the mobile device 101.

The mobile device 101 includes hardware, such as a GPS receiver, acamera, an accelerometer or a compass, which is used to determine thecurrent position and heading of the mobile device 101. As the positionor heading changes, the directional icons associated with each entry(including the static, non-bouncing directional icons) are animated toremain pointed toward the corresponding POI. For example, if the userrotates the mobile device 101 toward “Megabuxx,” the static arrow icon109 would be animated to point ahead and to the left, instead ofstraight ahead as illustrated.

In a further example, if the mobile device 101 moves to the rear,linearly away from “Pierre's Restaurant,” the speed of the bouncingarrow icon 110 may increase or decrease, although the bouncing arrowicon 110 would remain pointed at the POI regardless of the orientationof the mobile device 101. When the mobile device 101 moves farther thana predetermined distance away from the POI, or when a different POIbecomes closer to the mobile device than the POI, however, the bouncingarrow icon 110 might change to a static arrow icon or other icon. Thedirectional icons may appear to bounce, shake, pulsate, change color orcontrast, vibrate or otherwise move at different speeds, depending onthe distance between the mobile device 101 and the POI toward which thaticon is pointing. For example, the bouncing arrow icon 110 may bounce ata faster speed when the mobile device 101 draws closer to “Pierre'sRestaurant.”

In addition to or instead of using directional icons, other types oficons may be used to visually convey distance or directional informationto the user. For instance, a “smiley face” icon or a bull's-eye icon maybe selected and employed instead of using the bouncing arrow icon 110 toindicate that a POI is nearby. Different symbols can be used to indicatewhether the POI is handicapped accessible or not. Alternatively, theuser interface 102 may display an airplane icon to point to a POI thatis a great distance away or is inaccessible by car, a boat icon to pointto a POI that is located disposed across water, a car icon to point to aPOI that is driving distance away (e.g. greater than one mile, either asthe crow flies, or as routed along streets), or a walking man icon topoint to a POI that is located within walking distance (e.g. less thantwo miles, or less than a quarter of a mile). In addition to or insteadof using visual icons, the mobile device 101 may provide distance ordirectional information to the user by playing a sound, vibrating, or byusing a text-to-speech (TTS) module to speak pertinent information.

If the mobile device 101 is within a threshold distance of a POI, theinformation displayed in a corresponding POI entry may change to includefewer, more, or different directional icons, or to include fewer, more,or different items of textual, graphical, or video information. Thethreshold distance may be, for example, twenty or fifty feet if thedevice 101 is traveling at walking speeds, or a quarter of a mile or ahalf of a kilometer if the device 101 is traveling at driving speeds.The threshold distance may depend on the heading of the mobile device101, for instance setting a threshold distance of one hundred feet forPOIs in front of the device, and five hundred feet for POIs to the rearof the device.

The display of the review control 111 or the POI-provided information112 may occur as a result of the mobile device 101 moving to within aclose proximity of the POIs, or as a result of the mobile device 101remaining within the close proximity, continuously or non-continuously,for more than a predetermined amount of time. For example, if the userremains at a known location of a restaurant for longer than thirtyminutes during a typical meal time, an assumption can be made that theuser has eaten at the restaurant, and the mobile device 101 mayautomatically display a meal rating control to allow the user to quicklyrate the restaurant, without requiring the user to type in the name ofthe restaurant or identify what type of service was rendered by therestaurant. Prior to displaying the meal rating control, the userinterface 102 may also include a control which allows the user todisambiguate between two or more POIs that the user may want to rate.

While pointing the mobile device 101 at a POI, the user may select abutton 114 to obtain detailed information regarding that POI. The button114 may be a physical button, a soft button displayed on a touch screendisplay, or any other hardware or software control. The detailedinformation may include other information about the POI, includingcontact information, discount offers as provided by the operator of thePOI or by third parties, or more detailed rating information, such asthe typed comments of one or more past reviewers of the POI.

When displaying the detailed information, the user interface 102 mayalso include a control which allows the user to disambiguate between twoor more POIs that the mobile device 101 might be pointed toward. Forinstance, when the mobile device 101 is oriented as shown in FIG. 1, theuser interface 102 may display detailed information regarding “LocalCoffee,” as well as a disambiguation control labeled “Did you intend toselect ‘Pierre's Restaurant’?” The use of a disambiguation control isparticularly useful at shopping centers where, in official legal orgovernmental records, multiple businesses may officially share a singleaddress or set of GPS coordinates, or where the mailing address ofmultiple businesses is differentiated by unit, store, or box numberswhich have no practical correlation to geography.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating the relationship between a number ofactions which, when performed, provide for the enhanced technique foridentifying interesting POIs as depicted in FIG. 1. Briefly, the actionsinclude generating one or more databases for each geographic area (202),identifying interesting POIs using the databases and pre-cachingassociated information (204), displaying the information and directionalicons (206), receiving user input (208), accepting rating information(210), and obtaining and displaying detailed information (212).

In general, the action of generating one or more databases for eachgeographic area (202) is illustrated in FIGS. 4 through 8; the action ofidentifying interesting POIs using the databases and pre-cachingassociated information (204) is illustrated in FIGS. 9 through 12; theaction of displaying the information and directional icons (206) isillustrated in FIGS. 13 through 17; the action of receiving a user input(208) and accepting rating information (210) is illustrated in FIGS. 18to 21; and the action of receiving a user input (208) and obtaining anddisplaying detailed information (212) is illustrated in FIGS. 22 to 26FIGS. 1 to 3 and 27 relate to all of these actions.

FIG. 3 illustrates a system 300 that may be used for identifyinginteresting POIs. The system 300 includes a server 302 connected to amobile device 304 over a network 306. The server 302 includes one ormore processors 308, network interfaces 310, and media 312. The mobiledevice 304 may be a mobile phone, a laptop computer, a PDA (PersonalDigital Assistant), a smart phone, a Blackberry™ or another handheld ormobile device. The mobile device 304 includes one or more processors320, a clock 322, a display 324, one or more speakers 326, one or moreinput devices 328, a network interface 330, a navigation module 332, anda medium 334. In another implementation, the client device 304 is notportable or mobile, but rather is a desktop computer or a server. In afurther implementation, some of these structural elements are omitted orcombined.

The server 302 may be connected to the network 306 and possibly to oneor more other networks over the network interface 310. Similarly, themobile device 304 may be connected to the network 306 and possibly toone or more other networks over the network interface 330. The network306 may include, for example, one or more of the Internet, Wide AreaNetworks (WANs), Local Area Networks (LANs), analog or digital wired andwireless telephone networks (e.g., a PSTN, Integrated Services DigitalNetwork (ISDN), and Digital Subscriber Line (xDSL)), radio, television,cable, satellite, and/or any other delivery or tunneling mechanism forcarrying data services. Networks may include multiple networks orsubnetworks, each of which may include, for example, a wired or wirelessdata pathway.

The medium 312 stores and records information or data, and may be anoptical storage medium, magnetic storage medium, flash memory, or anyother storage medium type. The medium 312 includes a business directory340, a search engine 342, a locality database 343, a code generator 344,a rating application 346, and a clustering module 347. The search engine342 includes a map search module 345. The business directory 340 storesinformation identifying POIs and geographic coordinates associated witheach identified POI, as well as disambiguation information wheremultiple business share a same address. The code generator 344 generatescode (e.g., HyperText Markup Language (HTML) code) that, when processedby a code reader (e.g., a web browser) on the mobile device 304, causesinformation to be displayed on the display 324. The map search module344 identifies POIs matching a query search term. The medium 312 mayinclude other information, such as POI ratings, and a user groupingapplication.

The locality database 343 includes one or more geographic areadefinitions 352, and different types of databases, including a POIdatabase 354, a query database 356, and a category database 358.Geographic area definitions 352 may include area coordinates, area size,or other information. The POI database 354 may store associationsbetween a geographic area, a POI, and a score. The query database 356may store associations between a geographic area, a query term/POI pair,and a score. The query database 356 may be a single database includinginformation for each geographic area, or the query database 356 may be acollection of databases, with each database corresponding to a singlegeographic area.

Similarly, the POI database 354 may be a single database includinginformation for each geographic area, or the POI database 354 may be acollection of databases, with one or more databases corresponding to asingle geographic area. The structure and function of the POI database354 and the query database 356 will be discussed in further detailbelow, in association with the descriptions of FIGS. 4 to 8.

The medium 312 may also include a rating application 346 which obtainsand stores reviews and ratings for POIs, for example by soliciting usersto rate POIs that they have visited. Although the ratings or reviews ofa particular POI may affect the scores that are used to determinewhether the particular POI is considered to be interesting, a highlyrated POI is not automatically considered to be highly interesting, anda low rated POI is not automatically considered to be uninteresting. Themedium 312 may also include a clustering module 347 for clustering usersbased on similarity of provided ratings and POI selections.

The medium 334 includes a pre-cache module 336 a, a POI database cache336 b, a query database cache 336 c, a directional icon database 336 d,a category/criterion database 336 e, and a signal receiver 336 f. Thepre-cache module 336 a may determine which POI and query databases tocache in the POI database cache 336 b and query database cache 336 c.The query database cache 336 c may include a full or partial querydatabase for the current and surrounding geographic areas. Similarly,the POI database cache 336 b may include a full or partial POI databasefor the current and surrounding geographic areas.

The directional icon database 336 d stores directional icons which maybe selected for display on to indicate a direction and distance of arespective POI relative to the location of the mobile device 304. Thedirectional icon database 336 d may, for instance, store tables whichindicate which directional icons should be displayed in association withparticular POIs which are identified in search results, or may indicatewhich visual characteristics of a directional icon should be adjustedfor the particular POIs. For each directional icon or visualcharacteristic, the directional icon database may specify the conditionsunder which the associated directional icon or visual characteristicshould be displayed or altered. The selection of a particulardirectional icon or visual characteristic may depend upon severalfactors including travel speed and direction of the mobile device 304,sponsorship status of the associated POI, user preferences, or otherfactors. For instance, an icon that the user purchased may be selectedfor display, instead of selecting a default icon.

The signal receiver 336 f is configured to receive signals from one ormore devices 338 over the network 306 using the network interface 330,and to process those signals. For example, the signal receiver mayreceive signals from other computing devices, such as automobilecomputing devices, point-of-sale computing devices, WiFi (WirelessFidelity) equipment, other mobile devices, or any other type of device.The criterion/category database 336 e may store, grouped by POIcategory, criteria that may need to be satisfied before a rating controlused to review a POI of the respective category is provided to a user.The medium 334 may also include other components, such as a local searchapplication, user preferences, a directional icon selection application,and a durable query database.

The display 324 may display video, graphics, images, and text that makeup the user interface for the software applications used by the mobiledevice 304, and the operating system programs used to operate the mobiledevice 304. Among the possible elements that may be displayed on thedisplay 324 are various indicators (e.g., new mail, active phone call,data transmit/send, signal strength, battery life) and application icons(e.g., web browser, phone application, search application, contactsapplication, mapping application, email application). In one exampleimplementation, the display 324 is a quarter video graphics array (QVGA)thin film transistor (TFT) liquid crystal display (LCD), capable of16-bit or better color.

The navigation module 332 includes a camera 362, a GPS (GlobalPositioning Satellite) receiver 364, a compass 366, and an accelerometer368. The camera 362 allows the mobile device 304 to capture digitalimages, and may be a scanner, a digital still camera, a digital videocamera, or other digital input device. In one example implementation,the camera 362 is a 3 mega-pixel (MP) or more camera that utilizes acomplementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS).

The GPS receiver 364 receives GPS signals in order to determine acurrent location. The compass 366 determines a direction pointed to bythe mobile device 304. The one or more speakers 326 allow the mobiledevice 304 to convert an electrical signal into sound, such as a voicefrom another user generated by a telephone application program, or aring tone generated from a ring tone application program. Theaccelerometer 368 may, for example, measure tilt, motion, oracceleration of the mobile device 304. The navigation module 332 mayinclude other functionality, such as the ability to determine thelocation of the mobile device 304 using triangulation techniques basedon WiFi signals and/or cellular tower signals.

The processor 308 processes operating system or application programcomputer instructions for the server 302. Similarly, the processor 320processes operating system or application program computer instructionsfor the mobile device 304. The clock 322 may calculate a current timeand may be used, for example, for time-based query refinements. Theinput devices 328 may include, for example, a keyboard and a pointingdevice. A keyboard may be used for entering text data and user commandsinto the mobile device 304. A pointing device may be used for pointing,selecting, and adjusting objects displayed on the display 324. Apointing device may be, for example, a joystick, a trackball, atouch-pad, a camera, a voice input device, a touch screen deviceimplemented in combination with the display 320, or any other inputdevice.

While FIG. 3 illustrates on exemplary system for implementing theenhanced POI identification techniques described by this specification,other exemplary systems are possible. For instance, one or more of thefunctionalities described in association with the server 302, above, mayactually be performed by the mobile device 304, and vice versa. Further,at least a portion of one or more of the modules, caches, databases andapplications shown as being stored in medium 312 may actually be storedon the medium 334, and vice versa. Similarly, the user interface may begenerated and displayed at the mobile device 304 using informationreceived from the server 302. Alternatively, the user interface may begenerated at the server 302, where the server 302 transmits code (i.e.,HTML code) that, when invoked by the mobile device 304, causes themobile device 304 to display the user interface.

FIGS. 4 through 8 generally illustrate the action of generating one ormore databases (or one or more types of databases) for each geographicarea (FIG. 2, 202). FIG. 4, for example, depicts the selection of asearch result associated with a POI on a map of search results, andillustrates the fall-off effect of the selection on a query database anda POI database.

As noted above, before interesting POIs can be identified, a largergeographic region in which the enhanced technique is used (or is to beeffective) is divided into smaller, constituent geographic areas, andone or more databases are generated for each geographic area. Eachdatabase scores POIs based upon the frequency and/or nature of theselection of search results associated with each POI by past users. Whenthe databases are generated, POIs having higher scores are generallyconsidered to be more interesting than those with lower scores.

Where the geographic region represents a country or continent, forexample, the geographic areas may represent states, provinces, counties,cities, districts, localities, neighborhoods, zones, or otherirregularly shaped divisions or districts. Alternatively, a geographicregion such as a country, continent, or other land mass may be dividedusing a grid system to define uniform square-shaped geographic areas,each defining, for example, a quarter-mile or half-mile squaregeographic area. The geographic areas may be uniformly shaped ordissimilarly shaped, may or may not overlap, and may or may not becontiguous or tessellate. For each area, one or more databases storeinformation identifying POIs and their associated scores, where eachscore is determined based upon the frequency and/or nature of theselection of search results associated with each POI by past users.

At least two types of databases may be generated and used, either aloneor in combination, for the purpose of identifying interesting POIs: a“query database,” and a “POI database.” The former type, referred to bythis specification as the “query database,” stores informationidentifying query term/POI pairs and their associated scores, for eachgeographic area. In essence, the query database scores the strength of arelationship between a particular query term, a particular POI, and aparticular geographic area. The score stored in the query database for aparticular query term/POI pair is initially generated or is adjustedwhen a user executes a search query using the query term, views a searchresult associated with the particular POI overlaid on a map of searchresults, and selects the search result associated with the particularPOI. The score may also be upwardly or downwardly adjusted on otheroccasions as well, such as when a user rates the POI, or when a localvisitor walks by the POI and indicates that the POI appears interesting.

A single selection of a search result associated with a particular POIon a map of search results may alter the score associated with the queryterm/POI pair for a plurality of query databases. Specifically, thescore associated with the query term/POI pair increases by a largeramount for query databases associated with geographic areas displayednearer to the center of the map of the search results, while the scoreassociated with the query term/POI pair increases by a smaller amount(or does not change) for query databases associated with geographicareas displayed further from the center of the map of the searchresults.

The quantity of query databases affected by a single selection may beconstant, or it may depend upon a predetermined fall-off functionassociated with the query databases. For instance, if the fall-offfunction provides for a gradual diminishment of the score increment asthe distance from the center of the map increases, the quantity of querydatabases affected by a single selection will be large. By contrast, ifthe fall-off function provides for a sharp or abrupt diminishment of thescore increment as the distance from the center of the map increases,the quantity of query databases affected by a single selection mayinclude as few as one, such that only the one query database associatedwith the single geographic area displayed at the center of the map isaffected.

For a particular geographic area and query term/POI pair, the effect ofa single selection of the POI is variable, depending at least upon thedistance between the geographic area associated with the selected POI,and the center of the map. A small score change (or a lack of change)may indicate that the particular geographic area was far from the centerof the map of search results, that the score increment was reduced basedon estimating a lack of user satisfaction in the selection or based ondetecting a duplicate selection, or that the particular geographic areawas not displayed at the center of the map of the search results and thefall-off function provided for a steep diminishment of the scoreincrement.

Conversely, a large score change may indicate that the particulargeographic area was at or near the center of the map of search results,that the score increment was increased based upon estimating a high usersatisfaction in the selection, or that the particular geographic was notat the displayed at the center of the map of the search results but thatthe fall-off function provided for a gradual diminishment of the scoreincrement. In selecting the score increment, user satisfaction may beestimated based upon determining a length of a click on a linkassociated with the search result, by calculating a click-through-rate,by direct solicitation of or input by the user, or through otherapproaches. The score increment may also be affected by the quality ofthe associated click, for example the length of the click, the quantityof information about a POI that has been browsed by a user, or otherinformation.

Once data has been collected for multiple users, a high query term/POIpair score reflects that past users who, while looking at a map of alocation at or near a particular geographic area, frequently selectedthe particular POI as a result of a query which was executed using thequery term. A high query term/POI pair score thus indicates that astrong correlation exists between the geographic area, the query term,and the search result, suggesting that past users found the searchresult particularly relevant to that query term and for the geographicarea. When a subsequent user enters a similar query term in relationwith that geographic location, the query database for that geographiclocation is used to identify candidate query term/POI pairs for thatquery term, and the candidate pair or pairs having the highest scoresare used to identify POIs which are most interesting.

In one example usage of the query database, a search engine results page(referred to as a “post-query” page) is generated in response to a userentering a query term on a search engine query page (referred to as a“pre-query”) page. The pre-query page and the post-query page may bothdisplay maps. The post-query, search engine results page includes one ormore links to one or more POIs which satisfy the query, and overlaysthese results on a map. If the user selects a link associated with aparticular POI, it is assumed that the user considers the selected POIto have a stronger relationship to the geographic areas located at ornear the center of the displayed map than POIs which were not selected,even if the unselected POIs are physically disposed in an area closer tothe center of the displayed map.

For each of one or more geographic areas near the center of the map, anincrement value is determined. For example, the single geographic arealocated at the center may have a high associated increment value (e.g.,one) and the geographic areas located one area distance away from thecenter may have a lower associated increment value (e.g., 0.8), wherethe diminishment in value is dictated by the fall-off function. For thequery databases associated with each geographic area, the respectiveincrement value is added to a score associated with the query term/POIpair.

The adjustment of scores may be an iterative process that begins withthe databases associated with the center of the map, then iterativelymoves outwards to databases associated with surrounding geographic areasthat are assigned a non-zero increment value by the fall-off function.When a distance is reached where the fall-off function provides anincrement value of zero, the iterative score adjustment process ends forthat particular user selection. Different fall-off functions may beapplied, depending upon the direction to the center of the map, basedupon estimated user satisfaction, or based on other factors.

The latter type of database that may be used by this identificationtechnique, referred to by this specification as the “point-of-interestdatabase” (or “POI database”), stores information identifying POIs andtheir associated scores for each geographic area, where the scores aredetermined based in part on the number of times past users have selecteda search result associated with the POI. In essence, the POI databasescores the strength of a correlation between a selected POI and aparticular geographic area.

The selection of the search result associated with the POI may occur byselecting a link to the POI overlaid on a map of search results, or byselecting a link to the POI in a listing of search results. Unlike theapproach taken with the query databases, the POI databases to select andthe scores to increment are not affected by the distance between ageographic area and a center of a map of search results, but rather bythe distance between a geographic area and the geographic location ofthe selected POI itself. In other words, the scores in the POI databasemay be incremented even if the users do not view search results on amap.

Similar to the approach taken with the query databases, however, asingle selection of a search result associated with a particular POI mayalter the score associated with the particular POI in multiple POIdatabases. Specifically, the score associated with a particular POI mayincrease by a larger amount for a POI database associated with thegeographic area in which the POI is physically located, and may increaseby a lesser amount (or may not change) for a POI database associatedwith surrounding geographic areas.

For a particular geographic area and POI, the selection of the POI maynot affect the score associated with the POI, or it may affect the scoreby a large amount. A small score change (or a lack of change) mayindicate that the particular geographic area was far from the geographiclocation of the POI, that the score increment was reduced based onestimating a lack of user satisfaction in the selection or based ondetecting a duplicate selection, or that the selected POI is notphysically located in the particular geographic area and a fall-offfunction provided for a steep or abrupt diminishment of the scoreincrement.

Conversely, a large score change may indicate that the selected POI isphysically located in or near the particular geographic area, that thescore increment was increased based upon estimating a high usersatisfaction in the selection, or that the selected POI is notphysically located in the particular geographic area but that thefall-off function provided for a gradual diminishment of the scoreincrement. The fall-off function for the POI database may be the same asthe fall-off function or functions used for the query database, ordifferent fall-off functions may be used.

Accordingly, for a particular geographic area, a high score reflectsthat a POI in or near that geographic area was frequently selected as aresult of search queries executed by other users, suggesting that pastusers found that POI interesting for that geographic area. When ageographic area is specified for a subsequent user, this enhancedtechnique may identify those POIs that might be interesting to thesubsequent user by selecting those POIs in the POI database for thatgeographic area that have high scores.

Thus, and for use in identifying interesting POIs, each geographic areaof a larger geographic region may include one or more of a querydatabase, a POI database, or another type of database. In practice, thespecific query term/POI pairs (query database) or POIs (POI database)identified in databases associated with neighboring geographic areas arelikely to differ. In the case where, by chance, a particular queryterm/POI pair or POI happens to be stored in multiple databases (i.e.for neighboring geographic areas), the respective scores aggregated forthe query term/POI pair or POI are likely to be different in eachdatabase, particularly where a fall-off function is applied to the scoreincrements.

Multiple query databases or POI databases may be associated with asingle geographic area, where each database is associated with a timeperiod or other characteristics. In response to a user selection of asearch result, the databases selected for update may be those associatedwith the current time in the user's time zone. For example, if the userselects a search result in the morning hours (e.g., 6 a.m. to 12 p.m.),a “morning” POI database or a “morning” query database may be updated.Similarly, one or more “afternoon,” “evening,” or “nighttime” databasemay be updated if the user selects a search result during the hours of12 p.m. to 6 p.m., 6 p.m. to 12 a.m., or 12 a.m. to 6 a.m.,respectively. The time period may also refer to a particular day of theweek, a particular month, season, daytime or nighttime, year or otheridentifiable segment of time.

The use of multiple databases for a single geographic area, segmented bytime or other characteristic, is predicated on the assumption that thetime-of-day at which the user selects a search result affects whetherthe search result is considered interesting at that time. In otherwords, what the user may deem interesting in the morning hours may bedifferent than what they would deem interesting during the eveninghours. For example, where a nightclub and a law firm are physicallylocated in the same geographic area, the same user might be moreinterested in the law firm during the daylight hours or on the weekdays,and may be more interested in the nightclub during the nighttime hoursor on weekends.

For that geographic area, the preference that other users might have forthe law firm during the day, and for the nightclub during the night,would be expressed in a high score for the law firm and a low score forthe nightclub in the daytime POI database, and a low score for the lawfirm and a high score for the nightclub in the nighttime POI database.As will be described in more detail below, this time-period-specificinformation may be used to identify interesting POIs, depending upon thetime that the identification is requested. Similarly, the operatinghours of POIs, if known, may be used to avoid identifying a POI that isclosed as being an interesting POI.

POI and query databases may also be segregated based on other factors,such as by user cluster. For instance, and n addition to scoreinformation, the databases may include information which describes arelationship between POIs, based on user interests. For instance, userqueries and clicks may be used to discover relationships between POIs.Co-click data may also be used to extract user preferences, for exampleto identify users who select certain POIs, in sequence. This informationmay be used to provide users with recommendations regarding other POIsthat might be interesting to them, once they have expressed interest ina certain POI.

In one example, users may be clustered together based on similarity ofPOI ratings and POI selections. For example, users who frequently rateor select coffee shops, or who have similarly rated a specific coffeeshop, may be clustered with other users who have behaved similarly. Fora particular geographic area, multiple query and multiple POI databasesmay exist, where each query or POI database is associated with a usercluster. For a particular geographic area, a “default” query and“default” POI database may exist, for storing search results for userswho are not associated with a specific user cluster. These defaultdatabases may, for example, be populated with data that is aggregatedfrom all of the separate, user-cluster-specific query and POI databases,or with data generated from monitoring users that are themselves notassigned to a specific user cluster.

One example process for clustering users based upon their pastselections is described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/204,922,which is titled “Scalable user clustering based on set similarity,” wasfiled on Aug. 15, 2005, and is hereby incorporated by reference. Usingthat process, an interest set of low-rated or high-rated POIs can begenerated for each user, and users with similar POIs in their variousinterest sets can be clustered together.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example user interface 400 which allows a user toselect a search result on a map of search results. The interface 400 isboth a post-query interface, since it includes a map 408 of searchresults which results from performing a search engine query, and apre-query interface, since it includes a query term entry field 402 forinitiating a different search query which may generate a different map.The user interface 400 may be displayed on a mobile device, such as amobile phone, or a non-portable device such as a desktop computer.

As used by this specification, a “search query” includes the one or morequery terms that the user submits to a search engine when the userrequests the search engine to execute a search. Among other things, a“result” of the search includes information that references a resourcewhich the search engine determines to the be responsive to the query.The information may just be textual information, a URL, or otherinformation. The result may include other things, such as a snippet oftext from corresponding resource. Furthermore, a search query mayinclude no user-entered query terms. For instance, a search query may beexecuted using just the current location of the client device as a queryterm, resulting in the identification of local POIs or categories ofPOIs that are considered to be interesting. If the user begins enteringtext, that text may be used to execute a new query which includesuser-entered text, or to filter the displayed POIs or categories.

Where this specification refers to scoring a query term/POI pair basedon a distance between a particular geographic area and geographic arealocated at a center of a map, it is intended to refer to a distancebetween the particular geographic area and a geographic area located atthe center of a post-query map which results from executing a searchquery using the query term. The “center” may be the center of thepost-query map as determined when the map is initially generated andoutput by the search engine, or the center may be the center of anadjusted post-query map, as determined after the user has manipulatedthe size, scale, orientation, position, or view of the originalpost-query map that was generated and output by the search engine.

In FIG. 4, the user has entered a query term 402 (the example term“query term”) in a pre-query interface, to search for a POI whichsatisfies the query term 402. A search results area 404 lists searchresults 406 a to 406 c (“Business A” to “Business C,” respectively),where each of search results 406 a to 406 c includes a link to a POIwhich satisfies the query term 402.

Icons (or “markers”) 410 a to 410 c corresponding to search results 406a to 406 c, respectively, are overlaid on a map 408. Center mark 412,which is illustrated for reference purposes and could be, but wouldordinarily not be, displayed to the user, denotes the center of the map408. Although the map 408 displays gridlines which define the boundariesof the geographic areas, these gridlines are also illustrated forreference purposes and could be, but would ordinarily not be, displayedto the user.

In this example, the geographic areas are contiguous, non-overlapping,and each tessellates and has a uniform size and shape (e.g., one halfmile square). In some implementations, geographic areas may nottessellate, and may exhibit a non-uniform size, such as where ageographic area represents a neighborhood, county, state, province,district, city, or other demographic zone. In FIG. 4, each geographicarea is identified by a row-column identifier, starting with row A,column 1 at the top left of the map 408. For example, the center mark412 and the marker 410 b are located in geographic area “E5”, the marker410 a is located in geographic area “G3”, and the marker 410 c islocated in geographic area “C5.”

The markers 410 a to 410 c may each include references or links toinformation associated with the corresponding search results. Forexample, the markers 410 to 410 c may include hypertext links to webpages for Businesses A to C, respectively. A user may select one ofmarkers 410 a to 410 c or one of search results 406 a to 406 c toindicate their interest in a particular POI. For example, the user mayselect the marker 410 a in order to follow a Uniform Resource Locator(URL) to a web page associated with the search result 406 a. In responseto the selection of one of markers 410 a to 410 c or a link included inone of the search result 406 a to 406 c, one or more query databasesand/or one or more POI databases may be updated to increment the scoreassociated with the query term/selected POI (query database), or theselected POI itself (POI database).

As noted above, for each geographic area, the query database may store ascore which reflects a strength of the correspondence or relationshipbetween a particular query term, a particular selected POI, and thegeographic area. When a POI is selected, the score for a particularquery term/POI pair is incremented by a larger amount for querydatabases associated with geographic areas closer to the center of themap, and is incremented by a smaller amount for query databasesassociated with geographic areas further from the center of the map. Putanother way, when the user selects a POI from among multiple POIs whileviewing a map, it is assumed that the selected POI has a strongerrelationship to one or more geographic areas displayed at or near thecenter of the map than with the geographic areas which lie in theperiphery of the map.

In response to the selection of a marker or link to a POI, an incrementvalue (also referred to as a “score increment”) is determined, and theincrement value is added to a score already stored in the querydatabase. If an associated score does not already exist in the querydatabase, the initial score is assumed to be zero, or a new record maybe added to the query database which stores the determined incrementvalue as an initial score. A higher increment value will be selected fora geographic area nearer to the center of the map 408 (e.g., geographicarea “E5”) and a smaller increment value will be selected for geographicareas further from the center of the map 408. The value of the scoreincrement may be determined using an equation or predetermined fall-offfunction.

For example, an increment value of “1.0” may be selected for geographicarea “E5”, located at the center of the map 408, and an increment valueof “0.8” may be determined for the geographic area “D4,” since it islocated one geographic-area-distance from the center of the map 408.Increment values may fall-off as the distance from the center geographicarea increases. For example, as shown in a graph 420 of the querydatabase fall-off function, an increment value of “1.0” may be used fora center geographic area, an increment value of “0.8” may be used forgeographic areas located one geographic-area-distance away from thecenter (e.g., geographic areas “F6”, “D6”), and an increment value of“0.2” may be used for geographic areas located two geographic areas awayfrom the center (e.g., geographic areas “D3”, “G7”). According to thisparticular exemplary fall-off function, scores are not incremented forgeographic areas located more than two geographic areas away from thecenter (e.g., geographic areas “B2”, “E10”).

In the example of FIG. 4, the query databases and the POI databases usedifferent fall-off functions. Increment values selected for the querydatabase are displayed in the lower left corner of each respectivegeographic area located at or around the center marker 412. Incrementvalues would not actually be displayed to the user on the interface 400.As shown in table 422, which illustrates a data structure of anexemplary query database associated with geographic area “G3”, a recordin the query database may include a reference to the associatedgeographic area (“Cell. No”), the query term, the selected POI, and ascore, as incremented by the increment value of “+0.2.” Since, forexample, both fall off functions result in a zero increment value beingcalculated for geographic area E2, the databases associated with thatcell are not accessed or modified.

The POI databases may also be updated in response to the selection of aPOI. The POI database stores scores which indicate, for a particulargeographic area, which POIs located within that geographic area havebeen selected most frequently, although the scores may be adjusted tocompensate for duplicated selections, unsatisfying user visits (i.e.clicks for shorter than a predetermined period of time), or otherfactors. To select a POI, the user may select a search result 406 a-c, amarker 410 a-c, or may select a link referencing the POI through a listof search results or other interface. The location of the selected POIis determined, such as by determining geographic coordinates of the POIbased on accessing a location database which stores informationidentifying POIs, and geographic coordinates associated with eachidentified POI.

A single selection of a link to a POI on a map of search results mayresult in both the query databases and the POI databases being updated,or in one or the other being updated. Since the determination of anincrement value for the query databases requires that a map of searchresults be generated, a selection of a link to a POI in a listing of thesearch results (i.e. without a map) may result in the POI database alonebeing updated.

In response to the selection of a POI, an increment value is selectedfor the POI databases, and the increment value is added to existingscores stored in the POI databases. If an associated score does notalready exist in a particular POI database, a new record may be added,storing the selected increment value as an initial score. As shown intable 440, which illustrates a data structure of an exemplary POIdatabase associated with geographic area H4, a record in the POIdatabase may include a reference to the geographic area number (“CellNo.”), the selected POI, and a score as incremented by the incrementvalue of “+0.3.”

For the POI databases, the increment value is generally higher for thegeographic area in which the POI is physically located, and is generallylower as the distance between a particular geographic area and thephysical location of the POI increases. For example, if the user selectsmarker 410 a, an increment value of “1.0” is selected for geographicarea “G3.” Based on the POI fall-off function 450, lesser incrementvalues are selected for geographic areas adjacent or near to thegeographic area where the POI is located. For example, if the userselects marker 410 a, an increment value of “0.3” may be used forgeographic areas located one geographic-area-distance away from “G3”,such as geographic areas “H2” and “F4”.

POI increment values may “fall-off” as the distance from the geographicarea in which the selected POI is physically located increases. Forexample, as shown in the POI fall-off function 450, an increment valueof “1.0” is used for the geographic area in which the selected POI isphysically located, and an increment value of “0.3” may be used forgeographic areas located one geographic-area-distance away from thatgeographic area (e.g., geographic areas “G2”, “F3”).

Depending on the fall-off function, scores may not be incremented (i.e.,an increment value of zero is used) for geographic areas located morethan a certain physical or geographic-area-distance away from thegeographic area in which the selected POI is physically located. Forinstance, in the FIG. 4 example, the POI fall-off function provides thatgeographic areas further than one geographic-area-distance away (e.g.,geographic areas “F1”, “H5”) from the geographic area in which theselected POI are physically located are not affected by the selection ofa POI.

Accordingly, increment values for the nine geographic areas located ator around the marker 410 a are shown in the upper right of eachrespective geographic area. Increment values are not actually displayedto the user on the interface 400. The fall-off behavior of querydatabase increment values and POI database increment values may bedetermined, for example, by a Gaussian or parabolic function.

FIG. 5 illustrates another example user interface 500 for viewing andselecting search results. Similar to the interface 400, the interface500 may be a post-query interface displaying search results 502 a-502 cin a search results area 504, where the search results 502 a-502 csatisfy an entered query term 506. Markers 508 a-508 c correspond to thesearch results 502 a-502 c, respectively, and are overlaid on a map 510.A center mark 512 indicates the center of the map 510.

A user may select one of the markers 508 a-508 c or one of the searchresults 502 a-502 c to indicate their interest in a particular POI. Forexample, the user may select the marker 508 c. In response to theselection of the marker 508 c, a query database and a POI database maybe updated. For the query database, the geographic areas at or near thecenter mark 512 are to be updated. For the POI database, the geographicareas located at or near the marker 508 c are to be updated.

For each identified geographic area, an increment value is selected. Forthe query database, an increment value of “1.0” may be selected for thecenter geographic area (i.e., “E5”), an increment value of “0.8” may bedetermined for geographic areas one geographic area away from the centergeographic area (e.g., geographic areas “D4”, “E4”, “F4”, “F5”, “F6”,“E6”, “D6”, “D5”), and an increment value of “0.2” may be determined forgeographic areas two geographic areas away from the center geographicarea (e.g., geographic areas “C3”, “D3”, “E3”, “F3”, “G3”, “G4”, “G5”,“G6”, “G7”, “F7”, “E7”, “D7”, “C7”, “C6”, “C5”, “C4”). An incrementvalue of zero may be used for geographic areas located more than twogeographic-area-distances away from the center geographic area.

For the POI database, an increment value of “1.0” may be determined forthe geographic area including the marker 508 c (e.g., geographic area“C5”), and an increment value of “0.3” may be determined for geographicareas located one geographic area away from the geographic areaincluding the marker 508 c (e.g., geographic areas “B4”, “C4”, “D4”,“D5”, “D6”, “C6”, “B6”, “B5”). An increment value of zero may be usedfor geographic areas located more than one geographic-area-distance awayfrom the geographic area including the marker 508 c.

FIG. 6 illustrates another example user interface 600 for viewing searchresults. Similar to the interface 500, the interface 600 may be apost-query interface displaying search results 602 a-602 c in a searchresults area 604, where the search results 602 a-602 c satisfy anentered query term 606. Markers 608 a-c correspond to the search results602 a-602 c, respectively, and are overlaid on a map 610. A center mark612 denotes the center of the map 610.

A user may select one of the markers 608 a-608 c or one of the searchresults 602 a-602 c to indicate their interest in a particular POI. Forexample, the user may select the marker 608 b. In response to theselection of the marker 608 b, a query database and a POI database maybe updated. For the query database, geographic areas located at oraround the center mark 612 are updated. For the POI database, geographicareas located at or around the marker 608 b are updated.

For each identified geographic area, an increment value may be selected.For the query database, an increment value of “1.0” may be selected forthe center geographic area (i.e., “E5”), an increment value of “0.8” maybe selected for geographic areas one geographic-area-distance away fromthe center geographic area (e.g., geographic areas “D4”, “E4”, “F4”,“F5”, “F6”, “E6”, “D6”, “D5”), and an increment value of “0.2” may beselected for geographic areas two geographic areas away from the centergeographic area (e.g., geographic areas “C3”, “D3”, “E3”, “F3”, “G3”,“G4”, “G5”, “G6”, “G7”, “F7”, “E7”, “D7”, “C7”, “C6”, “C5”, “C4”). Anincrement value of zero may be used for geographic areas located morethan two geographic-area-distances away from the center geographic area.

For the POI database, an increment value of “1.0” may be selected forthe geographic area including the marker 608 b (e.g., geographic area“E5”), and an increment value of “0.3” may be selected for geographicareas located one geographic area away from the geographic areaincluding the marker 608 b (e.g., geographic areas “D4”, “E4”, “F4”,“F5”, “F6”, “E6”, “D6”, “D5”). An increment value of zero may be usedfor geographic areas located more than one geographic area away from thegeographic area including the marker 608 b.

Increment values may also be determined based on a scale of the map 610.As noted above, the extent to which a particular POI is considered to beinteresting is assumed based on an extent to which that POI has beenselected in certain search engine results, including some map searchresults. In this regard, this assumption may begin to break down whenthe map scale does not exceed a certain threshold, such as where theuser is looking at a map of a very large area instead of a map of aneighborhood, or a cluster of neighborhood within a walkable distance.To compensate for this possible breakdown, an increment value of zeromay be used for all geographic areas, for a particular type of database,if a map scale does not exceed a certain threshold. Conversely, if a mapscale exceeds a threshold, a non-zero increment value may be determined,as provided by the appropriate fall-off equation.

The popularity of a query term/POI pair in other geographic areas mightbe used to diminish or increase a score for a particular geographicarea. In the case where a query term/POI pair is popular across manygeographic areas, a score might be diminished since this query does notbring any particular information about this location. In the case wherea query term/POI pair is not popular in other geographic areas, or itsfrequency of its occurrence has very few spikes across a larger region,then the associated score might be increased since the low popularitysuggests that the query term/POI is particularly interesting in thatgeographic area.

For instance, increment values may be ignored (e.g., not stored) orscores may be reduced for POIs associated with chains, franchises, ornational or regional brands, where these types of POIs are identified bytheir existence in a large quantity of geographic databases. Forexample, a reference to a particular chain store may exist in numerousquery databases or POI databases. If the number of databases whichreference a particular POI (or like-named POIs) exceeds a threshold(e.g., if more than half of the databases include a reference to alike-named POI) then a decrement value may be determined (or a decrementfunction may be applied) and an associated score may be decremented in aquery or POI database. In one example, if references to a like-namednationally popular coffee chain are found to exist in databasesassociated with more than two thirds of all defined geographic areas,the scores associated with each of the references to the coffee chainmay be halved, effectively rendering each franchise location “half asinteresting.”

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a computer-implemented process 700for identifying POIs. Briefly, the process 700 includes: generating afirst search engine results page which includes links to one or morePOIs which satisfy a query; receiving one or more signals indicatingthat a link to a particular POI was selected by a user; selecting one ormore geographic areas; determining, for each of the selected geographicareas, an increment value; determining, for each of the selectedgeographic areas, a score associated with the particular POI;incrementing, for each of the selected geographic areas, the score bythe increment value; storing, for each of the selected geographic areas,the incremented score in association with information identifying theparticular POI, in one or more databases; and using the incrementedscores stored in the one or more databases to generate a second searchengine results page.

In further detail, when the process 700 begins (702), a first searchengine results page which includes links to one or more POIs whichsatisfy a query is generated (704). For example, a user may enter aquery term on a pre-query interface and select a search control. Thepre-query interface, may be, for example, a map search interface. Asearch engine may perform a search for the query term and may identifyone or more POIs which match the query term. A search engine resultspage may be generated which includes a search results list of matchingPOIs, and in some implementations, the matching POIs are overlaid on anincluded map.

One or more signals indicating that a link to a particular POI wasselected by a user are received (706). For example, the user may selecta link to a particular POI from a list of links displayed in a searchresults list. The user may select a POI link which is overlaid on a map,a link to the POI on a list of search results, or a link to a review ofa particular POI.

In the case where a particular POI may be classified under two or morecategories, the signal may also indicate the category associated withthe selection of the link, if known. The received signal may furtherindicate a duration between an initial click on the link by the user,and a subsequent click by the user. A received signal may also furtherindicate a click-through-rate of the link. As another example, first andsecond signals may be received which indicate that the link to a POI wasselected by the user at a first time and a second time, respectively,and consequently the second signal may be filtered or otherwise ignored.

One or more geographic areas are selected (708). For example, one ormore geographic areas disposed at or near a center of a displayed mapmay be selected. As another example, one or more geographic areas at ornear the physical location of the selected POI may be selected.

An increment value is determined for each of the selected geographicareas (710). For example, a first increment value for a first selectedgeographic area may be determined. The first geographic area may be, forexample, the center of a displayed map or the physical location of theselected POI. A second, lesser increment value may be determined forselected geographic areas which surround the first geographic area. Thesecond increment value may be determined by using, for example, aGaussian or parabolic function.

Increment values may be normalized, for example, to be a value betweenzero and one, inclusive. For example, the first increment value may bedetermined to be “1.0” and the second increment value may be determinedto be “0.8”. The “0.8” increment value may be used, for example, forgeographic areas which are one geographic area away from the firstselected geographic area. Other increment values (third, fourth, etc.)may be determined for areas that are farther away from (e.g., two ormore geographic areas away from) the first selected geographic area. Forexample, a third increment value may be determined to be “0.2”.

A score associated with the particular POI is determined for each of theselected geographic areas (712). For example, a score may be retrievedfrom a query database or a POI database. The score for each of theselected geographic areas is incremented by the increment value (714).For example, the score retrieved from the query or POI database may beadded to the increment value and the result of the addition may bestored in a temporary variable (e.g., memory address).

The incremented score is stored in association with informationidentifying the particular POI in one or more databases, for each of theselected geographic areas (716). For example, the incremented score maybe stored in association with information identifying the selected POIin a query database, where the selected geographic areas include thegeographic area nearest to the center of a displayed map and one or moregeographic areas surrounding that area. As another example, theincremented score may be stored in association with informationidentifying the selected POI in a POI database, where the selectedgeographic areas includes the geographic area in which the selected POIis physically disposed, along with one or more geographic areassurrounding that area.

The incremented scores stored in the one or more databases are used togenerate a second search engine results page (718). For example, asearch engine results page may be generated and displayed on a mobiledevice. Stored POIs located in proximity to the location of the mobiledevice may be identified and a score may be determined for each storedPOI. Stored POIs whose associated scores satisfy a threshold may beselected as interesting POIs. A second search engine results page whichincludes links to the relevant POIs may be generated and displayed onthe mobile device.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example user interface 800 for viewing searchresults. The interface 800 may be a post-query interface displayingsearch results 802 a-802 b in a search results area 804, where thesearch results 802 a-802 b match an entered query term 806. Markers 808a-808 b correspond to the search results 802 a-802 b, respectively, andare overlaid on a map 810. A center mark 812 indicates the center of themap 810.

A user may select a marker 808 a-808 b or a search result 802 a-802 b toindicate their interest in a particular POI. For example, the user mayselect the marker 808 a. In response to the selection of the marker 808a, a query database 820 and a POI database 822 may be updated. The querydatabase 820 stores records which may include a geographic areaidentifier 824, a query term 825, a POI identifier 826, an address 827of the associated POI, and a score 828. Other implementations arepossible. For example, records storing a query, POI identifier, addressand score may be stored in a data structure or file which is associatedwith a particular geographic area, and multiple files or data structuresmay exist, one for each geographic area.

For the query database 820, geographic areas located at or near thecenter mark 812 are updated in response to the user selection of marker808 a. For example, a score for the geographic area C3 may beincremented by a value of “1.0”. For example, a record 830 in the querydatabase 820 may be updated and an existing score of “9230” may beincremented by “1.0”, resulting in a new score of “9231”. As discussedabove, scores for geographic areas surrounding the center geographicarea may be incremented by a lesser value (e.g., “0.8”). For example, arecord 832 corresponding to geographic area D2 may be updated and anexisting score of “1120.0” may be incremented by “0.8”, resulting in anew score of “1120.8”. Records 834-842 in the query database 820correspond to other combinations of geographic areas, queries, andselected POIs.

The POI database 822 stores records which may include a geographic areaidentifier 844, a POI identifier 845, an address 846 of the associatedPOI, a score 847, a category 848, and a category score 849. For the POIdatabase 822, geographic areas for which scores may be updated inresponse to the user selection of the marker 808 a may be identified asgeographic areas located at or around the marker 808 a (e.g., at oraround geographic area D2). For example, a record 850 corresponding tothe geographic area D2 may be updated, and an existing score of “200.0”may be incremented by an increment value of “1.0”, resulting in a newscore of “201.0”. Scores for geographic areas surrounding the geographicarea corresponding to the location of the selected POI may beincremented by a smaller increment value. For example, a record 852corresponding to the geographic area D1 may be updated, and an existingscore of “1193” may be incremented by an increment value of “0.2”,resulting in a new score of “1193.2”.

The category 848 stored in the POI database 822 may be a categoryassociated with the selected POI. For example, for the record 850, thestored category is “Financial”. The category score 849 may be a sum ofthe scores 847 for all POIs of that category. For example, the categoryscore of “14202” for the record 852 may be a sum of the scores 847 forthe records 850, 852, a record 854, and possibly other records having acategory of “Financial.” One or more category scores for categoriesassociated with a POI may be incremented in response to the userselection of the POI.

A POI may be associated with more than one category. For example, ahotel which includes a restaurant may be associated with both a “Hotel”and a “Restaurant” category. A record 855 is associated with a “Hotel”category and a record 856 is associated with a “Restaurant” category.Records 857-862 in the POI database 822 correspond to other combinationsof geographic areas and selected POIs.

One use for this enhanced identification technique is to identifyinteresting categories of POIs, as a prelude to identifying theinteresting POIs themselves. For example, by combining scores oflike-categorized POIs, it may be determined that a particular area ismore associated with one category of POIs (“coffee shops,” or“restaurants”) than with another category of POIs (“governmentbuildings” or “museums”), while another area may have the oppositerelationship. Accordingly, when the user enters an area, an initial userinterface may display a list of prevalent categories.

For example, an initial user interface that is initially displayed mayinclude controls which each identify a different category of POIs. Thecontrols are ordered according to the scores associated with therespective underlying category, where each category is scored based onthe scores of their respective constituent POIs, with the controls forthe categories having the higher scoring constituent POIs being listedabove the controls for the categories having the lower scoringconstituent POIs.

Using the POI and/or query databases, local, interesting POIs may bedistinguished from other POIs which might generally receive moreattention by users on a national or regional level, or from other localbusinesses which others do not yet consider to be especially affiliatedwith the geographic area. Information identifying these POIs may bedisplayed to a user who may be searching for a local neighborhoodinstitution or gem, along with navigation, advertisement, rating, orother contextual information that might aid the user in selecting a POIto visit.

FIGS. 9 through 12 generally illustrate the actions of identifyinginteresting POIs using one or more databases, and pre-cachinginformation associated with identified POIs (FIG. 2, 204). For example,a full or partial, query or POI database may be downloaded to a mobiledevice. Scores stored in the query database and POI database may be usedto identify interesting POIs located around the physical location of themobile device, and to display information about the identified POIs.

In more detail, once the databases for multiple geographic areas havebeen populated with scores for various POIs (or, as discussed in moredetail below, for various query term/POI pairs), these databases areused to identify interesting POIs for a particular geographic area.Initially, a target location is selected, where the target location maybe a user-selected location, or a location where a user is currently oris expected to be in the future. Geographic areas near a target locationare identified, as are POIs which are scored in the databases associatedwith these geographic areas. If query refinement criteria are initiallyapplied, identified POIs which do not satisfy these criteria, such asthose POIS which are not associated with a selected category or which donot include an input query term, may be filtered, deleted, or otherwiseignored from further processing.

The scores for each remaining identified POI are determined from thedatabases associated with the selected geographic areas. The scores maybe adjusted or weighted using a fall-off function based on theirdistance to the target location, based on their proximity to an expectedtravel destination of a user, or using other criteria, and the scoresare combined to generate a combined score for each remaining identifiedPOI. These POIs are ranked based on combined score, and those POIs withthe highest scores are designated as interesting. Information whichidentifies the interesting POIs is provided for display to the user, asis other contextual information which may aid the user in selecting aPOI to visit.

As the mobile device moves from one geographic area to another, or asthe mobile device approaches a boundary of a geographic area, datapertaining to interesting POIs in the current and surrounding geographicareas may be pre-cached on the mobile device for quick access by theuser. The databases for the selected geographic areas, the list ofidentified POIs, as well as detailed information regarding theinteresting POIs (such as review information rating the interestingPOIs, or URLs associated with the interesting POIs) may be pre-cached tothe user's mobile device.

The information selected to pre-cache may be based on time-of-day. Forinstance, since query and POI databases may be segregated by timeperiod, as the end of a time period approaches, the POI and querydatabases for the upcoming time period may be pre-cached to the mobiledevice. For example, if a “morning” database is associated with a 6 a.m.to 12 p.m. time period, the download of an “afternoon” database maybegin at a time before 12 p.m. (e.g., 11:58 a.m.) so that the downloadof the “afternoon” database is complete, and detailed information isreadily available, by the time the “afternoon” time period actuallybegins.

Using pre-caching, information identifying the interesting POIs isimmediately available for display and use the moment that the user firstlooks at or activates the user interface of the mobile device. Since thepre-caching of information occurs in the background, the user is notrequired to type or otherwise enter information into their mobile devicebefore viewing information that may be relevant to the surrounding area.As the user interacts with the mobile device and begins to makeselections or enter query refinements, the mobile device may respond tothe user's actions by deleting certain pre-cached information from thelocal cache, by pre-aching other new information to the mobile device,or by adjusting settings which control pre-caching behavior.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a computer-implemented process 900for identifying POIs. Briefly, the process 900 includes: identifyingPOIs associated with one or more of multiple, selected geographic areas;determining, for each of the multiple geographic areas, a scoreassociated with the identified POIs; generating a combined score foreach identified POI based on the determined scores associated with therespective POI; selecting a subset of the identified POIs based at leaston the combined scores; and displaying a link to the POIs in the subset.

As noted above, a geographic area may represent a portion of ageographic region such as a country, continent, or other land mass, andin some implementations a grid system may be defined to form uniformsquare-shaped geographic areas (e.g., quarter-mile or half-milesquares), where the geographic areas may be overlapping ornon-overlapping. In other implementations, non-uniform sized andnon-contiguous geographic areas may be defined.

As a precursor to identifying interesting POIs, one or more geographicareas are selected. These geographic areas may include a targetgeographic area in which the user or their mobile device is located oris expected to be, or nearest to the current or expected location of theuser or their mobile device, as well as one or more geographic areassurrounding this target geographic area.

Where the target geographic area is the geographic area in which theuser's mobile device is currently located, the location of the mobiledevice may be determined, for example, using GPS or other approaches.For example, a dead reckoning process may be used to estimate thecurrent position of the mobile device based upon a previouslydetermined, fix position. As another example, a camera on the mobiledevice may capture an image of a landmark or text (e.g., signage) andthe mobile device may determine the current location based on thecaptured image. As another example, the user of the mobile device maydirectly input the location of the mobile device, such as by selecting alocation on a map or by entering an address or other locationidentifying information, or by docking or connecting the mobile devicewith another device which has a known location.

The target geographic area may or may not depend upon the currentlocation of the user or the mobile device. A user may specify aparticular location on a user interface of a computing device, such as adesktop computer. For example, a user may be interested in a futuretravel destination and may use a user interface displayed on the desktopcomputer to select a location (e.g., on a map, or by entering alocation). In this example, the target geographic area is the geographicarea in which the particular location is located, or nearest to theparticular location.

FIG. 10 illustrates several examples of the selection of geographicareas based on the detected or expected location of a user or theirmobile device. For instance, a location of a mobile device in thepossession of a user 1002 may be determined, and a target geographicarea 1004 in which the user 1002 is presently located and severalsurrounding geographic areas may be selected as the selected geographicareas. The quantity of surrounding geographic areas to select may bepredetermined or constant, or it may be dynamically determined based onthe various circumstances. Where the quantity is predetermined, allgeographic areas which partially or completely lie within a certaindistance (e.g., a half of a mile, or ten miles, or Ngeographic-area-distances) of the determined location may be selected asthe selected geographic areas.

Where the geographic areas are defined using a grid system, the eightgeographic areas surrounding the target geographic area (e.g., in whichthe user 1002 is presently located) may be selected. Specifically, thetarget geographic area 1004 and the eight geographic areas bordering thetarget geographic area 1004 may be selected to form a three-by-threegrid 1006 of selected geographic areas. As another example, twenty foursurrounding geographic areas may be selected by forming a five-by-fivegrid of selected geographic areas, where each selected geographic areais within two geographic-area-distances from the target geographic area1004.

Where the location of a mobile device is used to select the targetgeographic area, the quantity of surrounding geographic areas to selectmay be based on several factors, such as the average speed of the mobiledevice during a past predetermined period of time, such as the pastfive, fifteen or thirty minutes. For example, if, as shown in FIG. 10,the user 1002 has been walking at a speed of five miles-per-hour for thelast hour, eight geographic areas surrounding the target geographic areamay be selected. If the mobile device is inside of a car 1010 travelingat a speed of sixty miles-per-hour, a larger number (e.g., 19, 20, 25,36) of geographic areas may be selected, as shown in a grid 1012 ofselected geographic areas.

Because a person traveling at walking speed may not be able toconveniently travel the same distance as a person who is driving in acar, the quantity of surrounding geographic areas selected for a walkermay be less than the quantity of surrounding geographic areas selectedfor a driver. Accordingly, the speed of the mobile device is detected todetermine whether the user is walking (i.e. whether, over a past periodof time, the average speed of the mobile device fails to exceed apredetermined speed threshold, such as twenty miles-per-hour), orwhether the user is driving (i.e. whether the predetermined speedthreshold has been exceeded). If the speed of the mobile device exceedsthe predetermined threshold, a larger quantity (e.g., twenty five) ofsurrounding geographic areas may be selected. If the speed of the mobiledevice does not exceed the predetermined threshold, a lesser quantity(e.g., eight) of surrounding geographic areas may be selected.

The selection of surrounding geographic areas may be biased toward thedirection of travel of the mobile device. For example, as shown in thegrid 1012 of selected geographic areas, if the mobile device is insideof the car 1010, more surrounding geographic areas located in front ofthe direction of travel of the car 1010 may be selected than surroundinggeographic areas located behind the direction of travel of the car 1010.

The selection of surrounding geographic areas may be based on terrain.For example, if the mobile device is inside of a traveling car, it maybe determined that some surrounding geographic areas are entirely water,mountain peaks or canyons, etc. Such geographic areas whose terrainwould preclude the inclusion of accessible POIs may be excluded fromselection. For example, a geographic area 1014 has been excluded fromthe grid 1012 of selected geographic areas, because the geographic area1014 is located entirely over a body of water 1016.

The quantity of surrounding geographic areas to select may be based onvalues returned from a fall-off function selected for the user'scircumstances, such as a fall-off function that is used to weight scoresbased on distance when combining scores from neighboring geographicareas. Using a fall-off function, the scores associated with a targetgeographic area may be weighted to receive a full score, while thescores associated with surrounding geographic areas may be weighted forreduced effect based on their distance to the target geographic area. Inthis regard, a geographic area may be selected if a fall-off functionwould assign a non-zero value to the scores of that geographic area,while geographic areas which are assigned a zero-value by the fall-offfunction are not selected.

For example, for the geographic areas in the grid 1006 of selectedgeographic areas, the fall-off function may provide full weighting(i.e., 0% percent reduction or fall-off) to scores associated with thetarget geographic area 1004 and a 70% weighting (i.e., a 30% reduction)may be applied to scores associated with each adjacent geographic area(e.g., geographic area 1018). Geographic areas may be selected if thefall-off function returns a non-zero value, and may be excluded if thefall-off function returns a zero value. For example, a geographic area1020 may be excluded from the grid 1006 of selected geographic areasbecause a fall-off function would return a “zero” value for the scoresassociated with geographic area 1020.

As another example, within the grid 1012 of selected geographic areas,geographic areas located one geographic-area-distance away from the car1010 (e.g., geographic area 1022) receive an 80% weighting of their fullscore, and geographic areas located two geographic-area-distances awayfrom the car 1010 (e.g., geographic area 1024) received a 20% weightingof their full score. In both cases, the fall-off function assigns anon-zero value to the scores associated with each geographic area.However, the fall-off function provides that geographic areas locatedthree geographic-area-distances away, such as geographic area 1026,would receive a “zero” value for their associated scores. Accordingly,geographic areas located three or more geographic-area-distances awayfrom the car 1010 are not selected.

Data, such as the POI and query databases for the current andsurrounding geographic areas, may be pre-cached on the mobile device, sothat the stored information can be accessed and presented to the userquickly. The data to pre-cache may be selected based on the speed andexpected travel direction of the mobile device. The historical travelpath of the mobile device may be used as an indication of the expectedtravel direction rather than, for example, a snapshot of the currentheading of the mobile device. The mobile device may, for example, be inthe pocket of the user and the orientation of the mobile device may berandomly shifting. A historical travel path may be calculated based onthe recorded location of the mobile device at various points in time.For example, the historical path of the mobile device traveling in thecar 1010 may be plotted over the past minute, five minutes, or hour, andan expected travel path may be calculated such that it may beanticipated that the car 1010 will be moving into a geographic area1027.

Pre-caching of databases for the current and surrounding areas may beconfigured such that more databases for geographic areas located in thedirection of the expected travel path of the mobile device arepre-cached than for geographic areas located in the historical travelpath of the mobile device. That is, more databases for geographic areaslocated in “front” of the mobile device may be pre-cached than forgeographic areas located “behind” the mobile device.

The target geographic area (and corresponding surrounding geographicareas) may be determined based on an expected destination of a user. Forexample, a user of a mobile device may be on an airplane 1040 travelingto an airport 1042 located in a geographic area 1044. The airport 1042may be known as the user's destination based, for example, on the user'sspeed and heading, on a user input, on a random selection from among thepossible airports, on an automatic parsing of emailed travel documents,or by using other approaches. The geographic area 1044 in which theairport 1042 is located is selected as the target geographic area. Thisgeographic area and the geographic areas adjacent to it are selected,although geographic area 1050, the area in which the user is currentlyflying over, is not.

As such, the target geographic area is not always the geographic area inwhich the user or their mobile device are currently located. Forexample, where the mobile device is on the airplane 1040, the airplanemay be over the geographic area 1050, which is not included in a grid1052 of geographic areas that form the selected geographic areas aroundthe airport 1042.

In the example of the airplane 1040, the geographic areas adjacent tothe geographic area 1044 have no associated fall-off (i.e., they areassigned a non-zero value by the fall-off function). Selection of afall-off function itself may also be based on the speed of the mobiledevice. For example, a first fall-off function may be selected if themobile device is traveling five hundred miles-per-hour, such as when theuser is flying in the airplane 1040, a second fall-off function may beselected if the mobile device is traveling sixty miles-per-hour, such aswhen the user is driving in the car 1010, and a third fall-off functionmay be selected if the mobile device traveling at five miles-per-hour ormay be standing still, such as where the user 1002 is walking orstanding still. The expected destination of the user may be determinedthrough other approaches, such as my determining the location of theuser's scheduled appointments.

The selected geographic areas may form a shape other than a rectangularshape, and the selected geographic areas may or may not be contiguous.Where a mobile device is determined to be on the body of water 1016 (forexample, when the user is on a boat 1030), the geographic areas alongcoastlines 1032 and 1034 may be selected. As in the airplane example,the selected geographic areas do not necessarily include the geographicarea 1054 in which the boat 1030 is currently located.

When the process 900 begins (902), POIs associated with one or more ofmultiple, selected geographic areas are identified (904). The POIs maybe identified, for example, by querying the one or more POI databasesassociated with the selected geographic areas to identify the POIs thatare assigned scores for any of the geographic areas, or by querying theone or more query databases associated with the selected geographicareas to identify the POIs that are paired with an input query term inany of the geographic areas. POIs may be further filtered based on aselected category or based on a match of a query refinement (e.g., aprefix search), to reduce the quantity of POIs under consideration.Where the databases for a particular geographic area are segmented basedon time period, user cluster, or other factor, the databases to querymay depend upon the current time or date, the cluster to which the useris assigned.

For each of the identified POIs, a score associated with that POI isdetermined for each of the multiple geographic areas (906). Toillustrate this process, FIG. 11 illustrates example scores that arestored for various POIs for a target geographic area 1102, and forsurrounding geographic areas that make up a three-by-three grid 1104 ora five-by-five grid 1106 of selected geographic areas.

More specifically, the target geographic area 1102 may, for example, bea geographic area in which the user or their mobile device is, or isexpected to be. The selected geographic areas may include the targetgeographic area 1102 and eight adjacent geographic areas to form athree-by-three grid 1104 of surrounding geographic areas, or theselected geographic areas may include geographic areas located one ortwo geographic-area-distances away from the geographic area 1102, toform a five-by-five grid 1106 of selected geographic areas.

When the selected geographic areas includes those geographic areaslocated inside of the three-by-three grid 1104, the databases associatedwith each selected geographic area are queried to determine the scoresstored for each identified POI. For example, based on querying thedatabase associated with geographic area 1102, it is determined that ascore of forty five is associated with POI “A”, a score of twenty fiveis associated with POI “B”, a score of thirty six is associated with POI“C.” Based on this query, It may also be inferentially determined that ascore of zero is associated with POIs “E,” “H, “I”, and “J”.

Where FIG. 11 represents the contents of a POI database, the POI “A” mayrepresent, for example, a particular POI of a particular category ofPOIs. Since scores in a POI database are incremented based on theproximity between a selected POI and a geographic area in which the POIis located, the existence of scores for POIs “A,” “B” and “C” in the POIdatabase for target geographic area 1102 indicate that these POIs arephysically located at or near the target geographic area 1102. On thecontrary, the score of zero associated with POIs “E,” “H, “I”, and “J”indicate that these POIs are not physically located at or near thetarget geographic area 1102.

Where FIG. 11 represents the contents of a query database, the POI “A”may represent a particular POI associated with a particular query termthat has been input by the user of the mobile device. For example, inFIG. 11, “A,” “B,” and “C” may represent the query term/POI pairs“sample query term X:POI A,” “sample query term X:POI B,” and “samplequery term X:POI C,” respectively. Scores in a query database areincremented based on the proximity between a selected POI and ageographic area at a center of a map when the POI was selected. As such,the existence of scores for POIs “A,” “B” and “C” in the POI databasefor target geographic area 1102 indicate that, in response to the userexecuting a query using the query term “sample query term X,” these POIswere frequently selected while the post-query interface displayed a mapcentered over or near the target geographic area 1102. On the contrary,the score of zero associated with POIs “E,” “H, “I”, and “J” indicatethat these POIs are infrequently selected, or were not selected, whilethe post-query interface displayed a map centered over or near thetarget geographic area 1102.

In the case where two or more databases are used for a particulargeographic area, the scores from both of the databases may be determinedand processed separately. Specifically, when a query term is initiallyentered as an initial query refinement, query scores can be gathered andaggregated from the query database, while POI scores can be separatelygathered and aggregated from the POI database. These different scoresmay be used to identify two separate groups of interesting POIs, wherethese two separate groups may later be combined into a single group.

For scores corresponding to the geographic area 1108, a score of twentyfour is associated with the POI “A”, a score of seventy two isassociated with the POI “H”, a score of twenty five is associated withthe POI “I,” and a score of zero is associated with POIs “B,” “C,” “E,”and “J.” These scores, as well as the scores for the seven remaininggeographic areas located within the grid 1104 of selected geographicareas, are determined by querying the respective databases associatedwith each selected geographic area. Where the selected geographic areasdefine a five-by-five grid 1106 instead of a three-by-three grid 1104,the scores for the sixteen additional geographic areas located twogeographic-area-distances away from geographic area 1102 would also beobtained.

Returning to FIG. 9, a combined score is generated for each identifiedPOI based on the scores determined for each respective POI (908). Forexample, Table 1 illustrates the scores stored in the database for thetarget geographic area 1102 for each identified POI(geographic-area-distance, or ‘d,’ equals 0 in the target geographicarea), the scores stored in the databases for geographic areas locatedone geographic-area-distance away (d=1) from geographic area 1102, andthe total combined score. In Table 1, no fall-off is applied based ondistance.

TABLE 1 No Fall-Off POI d = 0 d = 1 Total A 45 192 237 B 25  67  92 C 36204 240 E  11  11 H  96  96 I  75  75 J  81  81

As shown in Table 1, the total combined score for POI “A” is determinedby adding the score of forty five for the POI “A” for geographic area1102 to the scores for the POI “A” for the other geographic areas withinthe grid 1104 that are located one geographic area away from thegeographic area 1102. For example, a score of twenty four is determinedfor the POI “A” for each of the geographic areas 1108-1122, and summingtogether these eight scores equals a subtotal of one hundred ninety two.Adding the subtotal of one hundred ninety two to the score of forty fiveassociated with the geographic area 1102 results in a combined score oftwo hundred thirty seven for the POI “A”. Similarly, a combined score ofninety two is calculated for the POI “B” and a combined score of twohundred forty is calculated for the POI “C”.

Where no fall-off is applied, the total score for POI “C” is highest,indicating that POI “C” is the most interesting of the identified POIsfor geographic area 1102. POI “A” would be considered second mostinteresting since it has the second highest score, and POI “E” would beconsidered least interesting (or uninteresting), since it has the lowestscore.

The databases associated with the geographic areas surrounding thetarget geographic area may reference POIs which are not scored in thedatabase associated with the target geographic area itself. For example,the databases for geographic areas 1108, 1118 and 1120 assigned scoresto POI “I,” but target geographic area 1102 does not assign a score toPOI “I”(or, inferentially, assigns a score of zero to POI “I”). Becausethis identification process selects surrounding geographic areas whichmay score POIs that are not scored in the target geographic area, themost interesting POIs for a target geographic area may include POIswhich are not located in the target geographic area itself.

For instance, since the combined scores for the POIs “I” and “J,” whichare not scored in the database associated with target geographic area1102, are lower than the combined scores for POIs “A,” “B,” and “C”,which are associated with the geographic area 1102, POIs “I” and “J” arenot considered to be more interesting than the POIs “A,” “B,” and “C”.However, POI “H”, whose combined score is ninety six, is considered tobe more interesting than POI “B”, even though POI “B” is identified inthe databases associated with geographic area 1102 and POI “H” is not.

The example of Table 1 does not apply a fall-off function in generatingthe combined score, but in other examples, fall-off may be applied. Itmay be helpful to apply fall-off based on the characteristics of aparticular area, or based on characteristics, conditions or thepreferences of the user. For example, fall-off may be applied to accountfor the user's mobility. As noted above, when a larger number ofgeographic areas are selected, the POIs which are selected asinteresting to that larger area may include those which are located ingeographic areas that are located far from the user's current location.If the user is highly mobile (e.g., driving), the user may be morewilling to travel a farther distance to visit a POI which is moreinteresting than those POIs within the user's immediate vicinity.Conversely, if the user has low mobility (e.g., walking), the user mayvalue closer POIs over more interesting POIs which are further away.

The decision to value distant POIs over closer POIs, or vice versa,occurs through the selection and use of one or more fall-off functionswhich may be applied to the scores of the POIs associated with selectedgeographic areas. Since mobility is a major factor to the valuedetermination, the particular fall-off function to use may be selectedbased on the speed that the user's mobile device is traveling, or on themobility characteristics of the user.

In the Table 1 example, the fall-off function applies no-fall off forthose geographic areas located one geographic-area-distance away fromthe target geographic area 1102. The decision to not apply fall-offregardless of distance may be appropriate for a user driving in a car,who may easily reach POIs located within the user's immediate vicinity(i.e., geographic area 1102) as well as geographic areas outside theuser's immediate vicinity (i.e. geographic area 1116). Put another way,because the user is driving and is highly mobile, there is no need todevalue moderately distant POIs by applying a fall-off function.

A person who, for example, is walking, biking, riding a scooter or awheelchair, or pushing a baby in a stroller may find POIs in adjacentgeographic areas less accessible and, thus, less desirable. Under thesecircumstances, a fall-off function that provides for a reduction inscore value as the distance to the user increases may be selected andused. Fall-off may be gradual and slowly diminishing, steep and abrupt,or some combination thereof. For example, a gradual fall-off may beapplied to values that are very close to a target geographic area, and asteep fall-off may be applied to values that are not very close to thetarget geographic area. The fall-off function may be a Gaussian orparabolic function.

For example, Table 2 illustrates the application of a 20% fall-off atone geographic-area-distance (d=1) to the scores of Table 1, and Table 3illustrate the application of an 80% fall-off at onegeographic-area-distance (d=1) to the scores of Table 1.

TABLE 2 20% Fall-Off @ d = 1 POI d = 0 d = 1 Total A 45 154 199 B 25 5479 C 36 163 199 E 9 9 H 77 77 I 60 60 J 65 65

TABLE 3 80% Fall-off @ d = 1 POI d = 0 d = 1 Total A 45 38 83 B 25 13 38C 36 41 77 E  2  2 H 19 19 I 15 15 J 16 16

The gradual, 20% fall-off applied in Table 2 may be well-suited for auser with a moderate level of mobility (e.g., bicycle, scooter). Usingthis fall-off function, scores for surrounding geographic areas (e.g.,geographic areas that are one geographic-area-distance away from thetarget geographic area 1102) receive a small reduction or devaluation inscore, reducing their effect on the combined score. This small reductionreflects the reality that, given the existence of a significantly moreinteresting POI a short distance away, a person with a moderate level ofmobility would be willing to travel this short distance, but not if thedistance was too far, and not unless the POI was substantially moreinteresting than those found in the immediate vicinity.

In Table 2, POIs “A” and “C” have the highest score, and are thusconsidered to be most interesting. By contrast to Table 1, in which nofall-off was applied and POI “C” was considered most interesting, theapplication of a fall-off function based on distance and speed canaffect the ranking of POIs to provide search results which are tailoredto the user's particular circumstances. Thus, given a user's mobility, auser who views the results shown in Table 2 may determine that it is notworth the bother to travel to visit POI “C,” which is outside the targetgeographic area 1102, since POI “A”, located inside the target area1102, is equally interesting.

The sharp, 80% fall-off applied in Table 3 may be well-suited for a userwith a low level of mobility (e.g., walking) in that scores forsurrounding geographic areas are significantly reduced. This steepreduction reflects the reality that a person with a limited level ofmobility is likely to want to remain within the user's currentgeographic area unless an extremely interesting POI exists a shortdistance away. In Table 3, POI “A” has the highest combined score, andis thus considered to be most interesting.

Comparing the results shown in Tables 1 through 3, it is evident thatthe POI with the highest score for a particular geographic area, whichis thus considered most interesting, can vary depending upon the abilityor willingness of a user to travel short or long distances from theuser's present location. In Table 1, for instance, where the no fall-offis applied, for example based on high mobility of the user, POI “C” isconsidered to be most interesting. In Table 3, where steep fall-off isapplied, for example based on low mobility of the user, POI “A” isconsidered to be most interesting.

As shown by this comparison, the designation of a particular POI asinteresting can vary based upon the fall-off function applied to thescores stored for the identified POIs in the various databases for theselected geographic areas. While the above example uses mobility orspeed as the primary criteria for selecting a fall-off function, othercriteria may be used. For instance, the amount of available time may beused to select a fall-off function, where a gradual fall-off functionmay be selected for a user with plenty of spare time, while a steepfall-off function may be selected for a user who is in a hurry. Theamount of spare time that a user has may be determined based onexamining the user's schedule of appointments or comparing the currentday and time with the user's typical work week, by receiving a signalfrom the user indicating that they are in a hurry, or by otherwisedetermining that the user is short on time (e.g. detecting, through amicrophone, the user stating “I'm really hungry”). In another variation,the fall-off function may apply a more abrupt fall-off to geographicareas behind the user and a more gradual fall-off to geographic areasahead of the user, reflecting the desire of the user to not reversetravel direction.

In addition to the fall-off function selected, the quantity ofgeographic areas selected may also have an effect on which POI has amaximum combined score, and is thus considered to be most interesting.Contrasted with Tables 1 to 3, which combine scores from athree-by-three grid 1104 of selected geographic areas, Tables 4 through6, below, combine scores from a five-by-five grid 1106 of selectedgeographic areas. Table 4 is a high mobility example, in which nofall-off is applied. Table 5 is a moderate level of mobility example, inwhich a 40% fall-off is applied at one geographic-area-distance (d=1),and an 80% fall-off is applied at two geographic area distances (d=2).Table 6 is a low level of mobility example, in which an 80% fall-off isapplied at one geographic-area-distance (d=1), and a 90% fall-off isapplied at two geographic area distances (d=2).

TABLE 5 40% @ d = 1; 80% @ d = 2 POI d = 0 d = 1 d = 2 Total A 45 115 19179 B 25 40 17 82 C 36 122 31 190 D 16 16 E 7 8 15 F 6 6 G 19 19 H 58 62120 I 45 18 63 J 49 22 70 K 6 6

TABLE 4 No Fall-Off POI d = 0 d = 1 d = 2 Total A 45 192  96 333 B 25 67  83 175 C 36 204 156 396 D  81  81 E  11  40  51 F  30  30 G  93  93H  96 312 408 I  75  91 166 J  81 108 189 K  31  31

TABLE 6 80% @ d = 1, 90% @ d = 2 POI d = 0 d = 1 d = 2 Total A 45 38 1093 B 25 13 8 47 C 36 41 16 92 D 0 8 8 E 2 4 6 F 0 3 3 G 0 9 9 H 19 31 50I 15 9 24 J 16 11 27 K 0 3 3

In the examples of Tables 4 through 6, the scores for each POI aresummed for the target geographic area 1102 (d=0), for surroundinggeographic areas located one geographic-area-distance away (d=1) fromthe target geographic area 1102, and for surrounding geographic areaswhich are located two geographic-area-distances away (d=2) from thetarget geographic area 1102.

In Table 4, no fall-off has been applied, regardless of distance. Thisapproach may be well suited for a person driving in a car, who mayeasily reach POIs located within the geographic area 1102 as well asgeographic areas adjacent to the geographic area 1102, rendering theneed for fall-off moot. Without applying fall-off, POI “H” has thehighest combined score, and is thus considered to be most interesting,despite the fact that POI “H” is located two or moregeographic-area-distances away from the user. This may indicate that thePOI “H” is considered to be highly interesting and “worth seeing” evenif it is some distance away. The fact that no fall-off is applied mayindicate that the user is highly mobile or has more available free time,and may be more interested in visiting highly interesting POIs even ifthey are further away, or if more travel time is required. However, aperson walking, biking, riding a scooter or a wheelchair, or pushing ababy in a stroller may find POIs in adjacent geographic areas lessaccessible and, thus, less desirable.

Under these circumstances, the fall-off functions used to generateTables 5 and 6 respectively provide for gradual or steep fall-off asdistance increases. In Table 5, in which gradual fall-off is applied,the POI “C” has the highest combined score, and is thus considered to bemost interesting. In Table 6, in which steep fall-off is applied, thePOI “A” has the highest combined score, and is thus considered to bemost interesting. By comparing the results of Tables 1 to 6, it isevident that the identification of interesting POIs can be tailored,using different combinations of fall-off functions and quantities ofselected geographic areas, to identify interesting POIs which are mostappropriate to the user's circumstances.

Because each of the selected geographic areas may be associated withmore than one type of database (e.g. a POI database and a querydatabase), the identification of interesting POIs can occur by combiningthe scores stored for each identified POI in one type of database, andseparately combining the scores stored for each identified POI in theother type of database. As a result, two separate rankings of POIs aregenerated, one for each type of database, and each POI on each separateranking including a combined score generated using one type of database.These separate rankings can be merged to identify POIs which areconsidered to be most interesting on the basis of both types ofdatabases, such as by combining the separate combined scores. Combiningthe separate combined scores may occur by averaging or summing theseparate combined scores, selecting the highest or lowest score,selecting a random score from scores retrieved from multiple database,or assigning different weights to scores retrieved from differentdatabases. Alternatively, the various scores can be ignored, and the twoseparate lists can be merged based on the relative ranks of eachidentified POI on each list.

Returning to FIG. 9, a subset of the identified POIs is selected basedat least on the combined scores (910). For example, as discussed withrespect to Tables 1 through 6, the POI with the highest combined scoremay be designated as interesting. Or, as another example, POIs havingthe top N combined scores may be designated as interesting, where N isany positive integer. As another example, the combined scores for POIsmay be used to select the top N most popular categories of POIs. As yetanother example, the top N most popular POIs of a particular categorymay be selected based on a user-selected category (e.g., the mostpopular POIs of a particular category may be displayed after a userselects a category).

The number of categories or POIs selected may be based on the size ofthe mobile device display. For example, when a mobile device is onlyable to display twelve POIs, the top twelve POIs may be selected. Thesearch results may also include one subset of interesting POIs, as wellas another subset of popular or highly ranked POIs that are identifiedthrough another POI identification technique.

A link to the POIs in the subset is displayed (912), thereby ending theprocess 900 (914). For example, links to categories or links to POIs maybe displayed on a mobile device. As discussed above, the selection of acategory may result in the subsequent display of the most interesting orpopular POIs of that category. Because the identification of interestingPOIs can be initiated using a target location as the only input or queryterm, the interesting POIs can be identified, and links to these POIscan be displayed, without requiring any user input.

FIGS. 12A to 12C illustrate several exemplary mobile device userinterfaces. In FIG. 12A, an application executing on a mobile device1202 a may initially generate a user interface 1204 a. The userinterface 1204 a displays a category list 1206 which displays categoriesof POIs. The category list 1206 may list categories in order of categorypopularity or interest. The category list 1206 may display categoriesthat have nearby interesting POIs of that category and may exclude(e.g., not show) categories for which there are no nearby interestingPOIs. If the user selects a category in the category list 1206, asubcategory list may be displayed. For example, if the user selects a“restaurant” category 1208, a sub-category list may be displayed whichdisplays different types of restaurants (e.g., Chinese, Thai orMexican), where the sub-categories may also be ranked based on interest.

As another example, if the user selects a category in the category list1206 and no subcategories exist, a POI list 1210 may be displayed in auser interface 1204 b, as shown on a mobile device 1202 b of FIG. 12B.The POI list 1210 displays information about POIs of the selectedcategory. As another example, the POI list may be displayed when a userfirst turns on the mobile device 1202 b (e.g., not in response to theselection of a category) and may display the most popular POIsregardless of category (e.g., the POI list 1210 may display POIs ofmultiple categories).

The POI list 1210 may display popular POIs based upon the time-of-day.For example, the most popular POIs associated with a “morning” querydatabase or a “morning” POI database may be displayed in the POI list1210 during the morning hours and the most popular POIs associated withan “afternoon” query database or an “afternoon” POI database may bedisplayed during the afternoon hours. The POI list 1210 may also bebased upon a user cluster with which the user is associated. Forexample, if the user is associated with a cluster of users whofrequently select or rate coffee shops, the POI list 1210 may displaythe most popular POIs which are associated with that user cluster.

The display of POIs based on user cluster may integrate with or overridethe display of POIs based upon time-of-day. For example, a userassociated with a “nightlife” user cluster may be presented with popularnightclub POIs in the POI list 1210 during morning hours even though thenightclub POIs are closed and might not be popular POIs in a morningquery or morning POI database. The “nightlife” user may not be presentedwith “business” POIs, such as law firm POIs, during morning hours eventhough the law firm POIs are popular POIs in a morning database.Similarly, a lawyer who is associated with a “lawyer” user cluster maybe presented with law firm POIs during nighttime hours, even though thelaw firms are closed and are not popular POIs in a nighttime database.The lawyer user may not be presented with nightclub POIs duringnighttime hours, even though the nighttime POIs are popular POIs in anighttime database.

The POI list 1210 may be displayed if the user enters a query term 1212.For example, assume that the user has entered the query term “that” tosearch for Thai restaurants. In response to the entry of the query term1212, the POI list 1210 is displayed, showing a list of entries such asentries 1214 a to 1214 f. Each entry 1214 a-f displays information aboutthe respective POI. For example, the entry 1214 a displays a POI name1216 of “Amarin Thai,” a distance indicator 1218 of “0.01 mi”, apast-user rating 1220 of three out of four stars, and a directional icon1222. The directional icon 1222 indicates that the “Amarin Thai” POI islocated behind and to the right of the current position and heading ofthe mobile device 1204 b.

Information used to display the category list 1206 and/or the POI list1210 may be pre-cached to the mobile device 1202. Pre-caching allows forthe mobile device 1202 to have pertinent information displayed at themoment when the user looks at or turns on the mobile device 1202. Thatis, the user is not required to wait for information to download beforethe user interface 1204 a or 1204 b is displayed. For example, a full orpartial query database and a full or partial POI database may bedownloaded, for example, from the server 302 (FIG. 3) to the mobiledevice 1202. As the mobile device 1202 is moved, data corresponding tothe current and surrounding geographic areas may be downloaded andpre-cached on the mobile device 1202. Pre-caching may be based, forexample, on stored user preferences and past user POI and categoryselections. For example, if a user has historically frequently selecteda “coffee shop” category, priority may be given to pre-cachinginformation about POIs that include the “coffee shop” categoryattribute.

Detailed information regarding one or more POIs may also be downloadedand pre-cached on the mobile device 1202. Pre-caching of detailedinformation may be based on the speed of the mobile device 1202. Forexample, if the mobile device 1202 is traveling at a high speed (e.g.,in a car), databases corresponding to a relatively large quantity ofgeographic areas may be downloaded, but with a lesser amount of detailedinformation about particular POIs being downloaded. In contrast, if themobile device 1202 is traveling at a lower speed (e.g., walking speed),databases corresponding to a relatively lesser quantity of geographicareas may be downloaded, but with a larger volume of detailedinformation being downloaded (if available) for each POI.

Due to bandwidth limitations, certain bandwidth amounts may be dedicatedto the pre-caching of databases and to the pre-caching of detailedinformation. A ratio of pre-caching of databases to pre-caching ofdetailed information may vary according to the speed at which the mobiledevice is moving. For example, if the mobile device is moving at a highspeed, the percentage of bandwidth allocated to pre-caching databasesmay be higher than the percentage of bandwidth allocated to pre-cachingof detailed information, and if the mobile device is moving at a lowspeed, a higher percentage of bandwidth may be allocated to downloadingdetailed information.

If the speed of the mobile device is above a certain threshold (e.g., a“high-speed” threshold), pre-caching may be suspended. For example, ifthe mobile device is traveling in an airplane, the mobile device may bepassing by and through geographic areas very quickly, and too quicklyfor pre-caching to be useful. If the speed of the mobile device fallsbelow the high-speed threshold, pre-caching may resume. As anotherexample, if it is determined that the mobile device has stopped or istraveling at a very low speed (e.g., below a low-speed threshold for anextended amount of time), pre-caching may be suspended and may resume ifit is later determined that the speed of the mobile device has risenabove the low-speed threshold.

The amount of pre-cached data may be determined based on an expecteddestination of the mobile device. For example, if an expected travelpath indicates that the mobile device is heading into a geographic areawhich includes many POIs, most or all available bandwidth may beallocated to pre-caching. As another example, if the expected travelpath indicates that the mobile device is heading towards a geographicarea which includes few and/or sparsely located POIs, pre-caching mayoccur at a lower rate using less than one hundred percent of availablebandwidth. Information specifying the amount and types of data topre-cache under various conditions may be stored in a look-up table orother module (e.g., the pre-cache module 336 a of FIG. 3).

Detailed information may be displayed in response to the selection of anentry 1214 a-f. For example, if the user selects entry 1214 a, detailedinformation about the “Amarin Thai” POI may be displayed in a userinterface 1204 c, as shown in a mobile device 1202 c of FIG. 12C.Detailed information may include an address 1230, a map 1232, pastindividual user reviews 1234 a-b, and an average past user review score1236. Detailed information may also include, among other information,other textual information, digital images (e.g., of storefronts, menusor menu selections) or videos. The user may select a control 1238 toreturn to the user interface 1204 b, or a control 1240 to return to theuser interface 1204 a (e.g., the interface 1204 a may be regenerated toshow popular categories based on the current location of the mobiledevice 1202 a).

One or more POI and/or query databases may be updated in response touser selection of an entry such as the entry 1214 a. In other words, oneor more databases may be updated to record the fact that the userexpressed interest in the POI associated with the entry 1214 a.Selection of an entry on a mobile device is another trigger to updatethe POI or query databases, in addition to updates triggered from userselection of a POI on an interface such as the user interface 400 (FIG.4). A mobile user is “on-the-scene” and may have a better perspectivethan, for example, a user using interface 400 who is perhaps a fardistance away from the selected POI. Accordingly, POI selections frommobile devices positioned near the POI may be given more weight than POIselections from interfaces such as the user interface 400.

The POI and query databases that may be updated may be based upontime-of-day or upon user cluster. For example, if the user selects theentry 1214 a during the morning hours, a morning POI database and amorning query database may be updated. If the user is associated with auser cluster, a POI or query database associated with that user clusterand/or a default user cluster may be updated.

Similar to the process illustrated in FIG. 7, when an “on-the-scene”user expresses interest in a POI, one or more geographic areas areselected, an increment value is selected for each of the selectedgeographic areas, a score associated with the particular POI isdetermined for each of the selected geographic areas and is incremented,and the incremented score is stored in association with informationidentifying the particular POI for each of the selected geographicareas. Because the “on-the-scene” user may have a better perspective ofwhether a particular POI is a neighborhood gem than a user of a searchengine, the increment value selected for the “on-the-scene” user may behigher than the increment value that would be selected for the user ofthe search engine.

The mobile device 1202 may notify the user if the user is in proximityof a POI that matches their interests. For example, the user may enter alist of interests, or the user's interests may be tracked based on theuser's past selections. For example, the user may configure an interestlist to include an interest in Thai food. The interest list may bestored in association with a user's profile. As another example, anapplication may recognize that a user has frequently selected Thai POIsor has frequently entered a query for Thai POIs. If, for example, theuser walks by a Thai restaurant, or otherwise comes into close proximityto a Thai restaurant, the mobile device 1202 may alert the user, such asby displaying a message or playing an audio sound or recording. Alertsmay be configured, such as by setting time restrictions, proximitylimits, or whether notifications are based only on the current locationor on an expected path.

Referring briefly back to FIG. 1, the entries 104 a to 104 c displayedon the interface 102 may be displayed, for example, in a manner similarto the display of the POI list 1210 of FIG. 12, in response to the userselection of a “coffee shop” category or in response to a “coffee shop”query term entry. The information displayed on the interface 102 may bepre-cached to the mobile device 101. In addition, detailed informationmay be pre-cached, such as the full text of the review accessible fromthe review control 111. The POIs associated with entries 104 a to 104 cmay be selected according to the method described above with respect toFIG. 9, using, for example, scores retrieved from one or more querydatabases and/or POI databases such as the databases 820 and 822described in FIG. 8. Since it appears that the user is walking on thestreet in the example of FIG. 1, the selection of POIs to display may bebased on scores associated with a three-by-three grid of surroundinggeographic areas, with applied fall-off for low-mobility, as describedfor the user 1002 walking in the example of FIG. 10.

FIGS. 13 through 17 generally illustrate the action of displayingmultiple search results (FIG. 2, 206). Each search result includes datathat identifies a POI, and one or more icons which provide informationregarding the corresponding POI. An icon may, for example, be adirectional icon which indicates a relative direction from the mobiledevice to a POI, or the icon may indicate other information such asrelative distance to, or the popularity or rating of, the POI.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart illustrating a computer-implemented process 1300for selecting directional icons for POIs that are identified in searchresults. Briefly, the process 1300 includes: accessing, by a mobiledevice, two or more search results, each of the search resultsidentifying a respective POI; determining a distance between the mobiledevice and each POI; selecting a directional icon for each POI based onthe distance to the respective POI; and displaying, by the mobiledevice, information identifying the POI and, for each POI, thedirectional icon selected for the respective POI.

In further detail, when the process 1300 begins (1302), two or moresearch results are accessed by a mobile device, with each of the searchresults identifying a POI (1304). Search results may be received througha network connection with a search engine. For example, a user may entera query term through a user interface of the mobile device, and mayindicate that a query should be executed by the search engine. In thiscase, the mobile device may transmit the query term to the search engineover the network connection, and the search engine may execute the queryand transmit the search results back to the mobile device over thenetwork connection. The query may be executed without the user's directintervention, such as, for example, by having the mobile deviceautomatically transmit its location to the search engine in order forthe search engine to identify nearby, interesting POIs, using theprocesses described above.

Alternatively, when the mobile device includes a search application, thesearch results may be generated by the mobile device itself. Forexample, if the mobile device includes the POI databases or querydatabases for several surrounding geographic areas, the mobile devicemay use these databases to identify nearby, interesting POIs. Whetherthe search results are generated by the search engine and aretransmitted to the mobile device, or whether the search results aregenerated by the mobile device, they may be stored on a computerreadable medium (or other signal carrier) on the mobile device, andaccessed by the mobile device from this medium.

In addition to the techniques for identifying interesting POIs describedabove, the search results may be generated using any type of searchtechniques, including a relevance-based or popularity-based searchtechnique. The search results may include information identifying thePOIs, as well as information identifying the location of the identifiedPOIs. This information may include data, or links to data. The searchresults, and detailed information regarding POIs identified in thesearch results, may be pre-cached to the mobile device for display tothe user through the user interface.

A distance between the mobile device and one or more of the POIs isdetermined (S1306). The location of the mobile device may be determinedusing GPS functionality, dead reckoning, or any other locationdetermining technique. The location of the POIs may be determined byaccessing a location database (e.g., business directory 340, FIG. 3)which stores information identifying POIs, and geographic coordinatesassociated with each identified POI. A distance may be calculated forall of the POIs identified in the search results, or for some subset ofthese POIs. For instance, distances may be calculated for the POIs thatwill be displayed on the user interface in an initial state, whiledistances for the POIs that will not be displayed on the user interfacein the initial state may not be calculated.

Once the location of the mobile device and the POIs are identified andthe distances to each POI are determined, other information may also bedetermined, including a relative direction from the mobile device toeach POI. Since the mobile device may include an internal compass, therelative direction may correspond to a compass heading from the mobiledevice to the POI. Alternatively, the default viewing or usageorientation of the mobile device may be taken into consideration whendetermining a relative direction to a POI. In most instances, a POIlocated directly ahead of the physical top or front of the mobiledevice, or viewed through a camera viewfinder of the mobile device, hasa relative direction of 0°, a POI located to the physical left side orright side of the mobile device has a relative direction of 90° or 270°,respectively, and a POI located toward the physical bottom or rear ofthe mobile device has a relative direction of 180°.

These relative directions may be automatically or manually adjusted inresponse to changes in the default viewing orientation, for example ifthe user switches from a “portrait” viewing mode to a “landscape”viewing mode by rotating the mobile device 90° counterclockwise. In thisinstance, a POI located directly ahead of the physical top or front ofthe mobile device has a relative direction of 270°, a POI located to thephysical left side or right side of the mobile device has a relativedirection of 180° or 0°, respectively, and a POI located toward thephysical bottom or rear of the mobile device has a relative direction of90°.

A directional icon is selected for each POI, based on the distance tothe respective POI (S1308). The directional icon is selected from amongmultiple possible directional icons, and may be a two-dimensionaldirectional icon or a three-dimensional directional icon. At a minimum,the directional icon indicates the direction or position of a POIrelative to the mobile device, although the directional icon may alsoconvey other information.

One type of icon (e.g., a colored directional icon) may be selected forone subset of the POIs, and another type of directional icon (e.g., ablack-and-white directional icon) may be selected for another subset ofthe POIs. As shown in FIG. 14A, a black directional icon 1402 isselected for one of POIs (“POI B”), and white directional icons1404-1408 are selected for the remaining POIs (“POI A,” “POI C,” and“POI D”). A black directional icon may be selected, for example, for thePOI that is closest to the current location of the mobile device 1410,and white directional icons may be selected for those POIs which are notclosest to the current location of the mobile device 1410.Alternatively, black directional icons may be selected for the N closestPOIs, where N is any positive integer (e.g., 3), and white directionalicons may be selected for the remaining displayed POIs which are not theN closest POIs.

The black directional icon 1402 may have a solid or persistent blackcolor, or the black directional icon 1402 may flash or change color backand forth between black and white, to grab the user's attention. Inselecting a flashing or color-changing directional icon, the user mayvisually filter the POIs more quickly, to identify the closest POI andthe relative direction to the closest POIs.

Depending upon the distance between the mobile device and correspondingPOI, the directional icons may bounce at different speeds, pulsate,appear to expand or contract, flash or be otherwise highlighted toindicate that a POI is nearby, or that a particular POI is relativelycloser than other displayed POIs. The flashing or change of color of theblack directional icon 1402 may occur at a predetermined rate, such asthree changes or flashes per second.

In addition to or instead of merely pointing toward a POI, thedirectional indication may provide some other indication of the user'sposition in relation to the POI. For instance, instead of an arrow iconwhich might indicate that a user should travel in a certain direction toreach a POI, a bull's-eye icon might indicate that the user is alreadynear a POI, or an “X” icon might indicate that the POI is simply too faraway for the user to attempt to reach. Thus, other contextualinformation about a POI may be gleaned from the directional icon basedon the type of icon selected for a POI, or based on certain visualcharacteristics of the icon. For example, the color, shape, motion, orother visual characteristics of an icon may reflect the distance to aPOI, may indicate whether the POI is sponsored, or may indicate that acertain event or condition is occurring at the POI.

In one example, the motion of a directional icon may be used todistinguish POIs which are closer to the user's current location fromothers POIs which are further away, or to identify all POIs that arelocated within a certain predetermined distance of the mobile device.Specifically, the directional icon associated with the closest POI, orthe directional icons associated with the POIs located within apredetermined distance, may be animated to bounce or pulsate. If morethan a certain number (or percentage) of the POIs are determined to bewithin the predetermined distance, a bouncing or pulsating directionalicon may only be selected for some subset of the qualifying POIs, toreduce the number of attention-grabbing directional icons displayed on asingle user interface.

Where such motion is used, a single glance at a particular directionalicon indicates not only whether the associated POI is close, but also,based on the relative position of the directional icon on the userinterface, how interesting the associated POI is relative to the otheridentified POIs. The user may find it easier and more enjoyable toobtain information about a POI by quickly glancing at its associatedicon, rather than by reading textual data which describes this sameinformation.

While a single attention-grabbing directional icon among a large numberof directional icons may help the user quickly select a POI to visit, ifmost or all of the directional icons are intended to grab the user'sattention, the user might not be able to quickly visually filter one POIfrom another. Accordingly, the selection of attention-grabbing elementsor visually stimulating characteristics of a directional icon may beperformed selectively, to take into account the limited attention of theuser, and to increase the user's ability to visually filter ordistinguish among multiple POIs, especially where each POI may benoteworthy for different reasons.

Other than color and motion, different visual characteristics of thedirectional icons may be adjusted to grab the user's attention.Specifically, the size of the directional icon may be used as anotherdiscriminator to distinguish one POI from another. FIG. 14B illustrateslarge directional icons 1412-1414 and small directional icons 1416-1418displayed on a mobile device 1420. The large directional icons 1412-1414may be selected for POIs that are within a predetermined distance (e.g.,one hundred feet, one quarter mile) of the mobile device 1420.

The size of the directional icons 1412-1418 may be inverselyproportional to the distance to the respective POI. For example, thedirectional icon 1412 may be larger than the directional icon 1416 toindicate that the “POI A” (associated with the directional icon 1412) iscloser to the mobile device 1420 than the “POI B” (associated with thedirectional icon 1416). Larger directional icons may be considered moreattractive or easier to notice, and may thus be used to draw moreattention to nearby POIs. In contrast, the size of the directional iconmay be proportional to the distance to the respective POI. For example,the directional icon 1418 may be smaller than the directional icon 1414to indicate that the distance to the “POI D” is less than the distanceto the “POI C”.

Other approaches and types of directional icons may be used to indicaterelative distance to an associated POI. For example, FIG. 14Cillustrates a short-tailed arrow directional icon 1422 and long-tailedarrow directional icons 1424-1426 displayed on a mobile device 1430. Theshort tail on the directional icon 1422 may indicate that the distanceto the respective POI “B” is relatively short, as compared to longerdistances represented by the long tails on the directional icons 1424and 1426. For some POIs, a directional icon may not be shown. Forexample, no directional icon is shown for a “POI A” 1428, perhapsbecause the distance to the “POI A” 1428 is greater than a thresholddistance, or because the distance to the “POI A” cannot be determined.

A directional icon may be animated to appear to bounce or pulsate toattract the user's attention. For example, FIG. 14D illustratesbouncing-arrow directional icons 1431 and 1432 displayed on a mobiledevice 1434. A bouncing directional icon 1431 or 1432 may be selectedinstead of a non-bouncing directional icon 1436 if the distance to therespective POI is less than a threshold distance (e.g., one mile). Asanother example, a quickly-bouncing directional icon may be selected forPOIs located within a threshold distance of the mobile device 1434, anda slowly bouncing directional icon may be selected for POIs locatedgreater than a threshold distance from the mobile device 1434. Forexample, if a threshold is defined as five hundred feet and if the POI“A” is two hundred feet away from the mobile device 1434, thedirectional icon 1431 may bounce “quickly” at a rate of one hundredtimes per minute and if the POI “C” is one half mile away from themobile device 1434 the directional icon 1432 may bounce “slowly” at arate of thirty times per minute. The definition of “quickly” versus“slowly” may be based on constant values, such as one hundred bouncesper minute (for quickly) or thirty bounces per minute (for slowly), or“quickly” and “slowly” may be relative terms that may be based, forexample, on a known “slow” or “quick” value. For example, “quickly” maybe defined as “twice as fast as slowly” (e.g., if “slowly” is defined astwenty bounces per minute, “quickly” may be defined as two times twenty,or forty bounces per minute).

As the mobile device 1434 moves, directional icons may change inappearance to become more or less attention-grabbing, based on a changein distance between respective POIs and the mobile device 1434. Forexample, the distance between “POI A” and the mobile device 1434 may bedetermined at a first time and at a second time. If the distance betweenthe mobile device 1434 and “POI A” has decreased, the respectivedirectional icon 1431 may be animated to bounce at a faster rate.Conversely, if the distance between the mobile device 1434 and “POI A”has increased, the directional icon 1431 may be animated to bounce at aslower rate.

Other types of directional icons may change in appearance to become moreor less attention-grabbing based on a change in distance between arespective POI and a mobile device. For example, the directional icon1402 (FIG. 14A) may change to have a lighter color if the distancebetween the mobile device 1410 and POI “B” increases, and thedirectional icon 1404 may change to have a darker color if the distancebetween the mobile device 1410 and POI “C” decreases. As anotherexample, the directional icon 1412 (FIG. 14B) may change to a smallersize if the distance between the mobile device 1420 and POI “A”increases, and the directional icon 1416 may change to a larger size ifthe distance between the mobile device 1420 and POI “B” decreases. Asyet another example, the directional icon 1422 (FIG. 14C) may change tohave a longer tail if the distance between the mobile device 1430 andPOI “B” increases, and the directional icon 1424 may change to have ashorter tail if the distance between the mobile device 1430 and POI “C”decreases.

Directional icons may be selected based on whether respective POIs aresponsored. A directional icon for a sponsored POI may be a logo orsymbol which represents or identifies the POI. For example, FIG. 14Eillustrates directional icons 1440 and 1442 displayed on a mobile device1444. The directional icons 1440 and 1442 are logos of a sponsored“$tirBux” coffee house POI. The directional icons 1440 and 1442 point todifferent “$tirBux” locations. The directional icon 1440 indicates thata first “$tirBux” location is located forward and to the left of thecurrent location and heading of the mobile device 1444 and thedirectional icon 1442 indicates that a second “$tirBux” location islocated to the right of the current location and heading of the mobiledevice 1444. Default directional icons 1446-1448 point to unsponsored“MegaBux” and “Local Coffee” POIs, respectively. The directional icons1440 and 1442 may change in appearance to become more or lessattention-grabbing based on a change in distance between the respectivePOI and the mobile device 1444. For example, the directional icons 1440and 1442 may bounce more quickly or more slowly, grow larger or becomesmaller, become darker or lighter in color, or become higher contrast orlower contrast.

A “star”, “bull's eye” or other-shaped directional icon may be used toindicate that a mobile device has “arrived” at a POI (e.g., moved towithin a predetermined distance, such as one hundred feet, of a POI).For example, FIG. 14F illustrates a star directional icon 1450 displayedon a mobile device 1452. The star directional icon 1450 indicates thatthe mobile device 1452 is within a threshold distance (e.g., one hundredfeet) of “POI A”. If the mobile device 1452 moves such that the distancebetween the mobile device 1452 and “POI A” is more then thepredetermined distance, the star directional icon 1450 may change toanother icon, such as an arrow-shaped directional icon 1454 (with thearrow pointing at POI “A”).

A directional icon may be selected based on the receipt of a signalwhich identifies one or more POIs. The signal may indicate, for example,that a friend is visiting a nearby POI. A signal may be received by auser's mobile device from the friend's mobile device or a signal may besent from the friend's mobile device to a server, with the serversending a signal to the user's mobile device. FIG. 14G illustrates adirectional icon 1460 displayed on a mobile device 1462. The directionalicon 1460 includes a “smiley face” to indicate that a friend is locatedat POI “D”. The directional icon 1460 may include other shapes, such asan icon of a person, or may include a digital image of the friend, ifavailable.

As another example, a signal may be received which indicates that a saleor promotion is occurring at the POI. A promotional directional iconwhich indicates the occurrence of the promotion may be selected for thePOI. The owner or operator of the POI may pay for the promotionaldirectional icon to be selected for the POI.

If a search result does not correspond to a particular POI, for examplewhere the search result identifies a franchise with constituent POIs inmultiple geographic areas, no directional icon may be selected, or adirectional icon may be selected based on the closest constituent POI, arandomly selected constituent POI, or a most frequently visitedconstituent POI.

FIG. 15 illustrates two example tables that may be used for selectingdirectional icons based on the speed of a mobile device and distancebetween the mobile device and a POI. Table 1502 illustrates a highmobility scenario (e.g., the mobile device is traveling in a car) andtable 1504 illustrates a low mobility scenario (e.g., the speed of themobile device is walking speed). For the high mobility scenario, aslowly bouncing arrow directional icon 1506 may be used for a POI if thedistance between the mobile device and the POI is greater than fivemiles, and a quickly bouncing arrow directional icon 1508 may be used ifthe distance is between one half mile and five miles.

The directional icons 1506-1508 may bounce at different speeds, based onthe distance between the respective POI and the mobile device. Forexample, the directional icon 1506 may bounce at a rate of twentybounces per minute and the directional icon 1508 may bounce at a rate ofsixty bounces per minute. A bull's-eye directional icon 1510 may be usedif the distance between the POI and the mobile device is less than onehalf mile, to indicate that the mobile device has “arrived” at the POI.

For the low mobility scenario shown in table 1504, a car-shapeddirectional icon 1512 may be selected for POIs located more than onemile away from the mobile device. Since the user may be walking orotherwise traveling at a low speed in the low mobility scenario, thecar-shaped directional icon 1512 indicates that the distance to therespective POI is likely “too far to walk”. A bouncing arrow directionalicon 1514 may be selected for POIs located between fifty feet and onemile from the mobile device. A star directional icon 1516 may be used ifthe distance between the POI and the mobile device is less than fiftyfeet, to indicate that the mobile device has “arrived” at the POI.

A formula may be used to determine the bounce or pulsation frequency foranimating the directional icon 1514, where the frequency represents thequantity of bounces or pulsations per unit time. For example, thequantity of bounces or pulsations per minute may be calculated as shownin Equation (1), below:

$\begin{matrix}{{{Frequency}\mspace{14mu}\left( {{bounces}\mspace{14mu}{or}\mspace{14mu}{pulsations}\text{/}{minute}} \right)} = \frac{5000}{{distance}\mspace{14mu}{from}\mspace{14mu}{mobile}\mspace{14mu}{device}\mspace{14mu}{to}\mspace{14mu}{POI}\mspace{14mu}({ft})}} & (1)\end{matrix}$

Using Equation (1), the bounce or pulsation frequency increases as thedistance between the mobile device and the respective POI decreases. If,for example, the distance is two hundred feet, the directional icon 1514bounces or pulsates slowly at twenty five times per minute. If thedistance is fifty feet, the directional icon 1514 bounces quickly at onehundred times per minute.

Returning to FIG. 9, information identifying the POIs is displayed onthe mobile device, as are the directional icons selected for the POIs(S1310), thereby ending the process 1300 (S1312). For example, FIGS. 14Ato 14G illustrate mobile devices 1410, 1420, 1430, 1434, 1444, 1452, and1460 which each display POI names along with respective directionalicons.

FIG. 16 illustrates animating the directional icons to remain pointed ata POI, based on detecting a change in orientation of a mobile device1600. In FIG. 16, the top of the mobile device is associated with a 0°relative direction. The mobile device 1600 displays directional icons1602-1608. Mobile device 1620 represents the mobile device 1600 rotated90° clockwise. The directional icons 1602-1608 are displayed on themobile device 1620 as directional icons 1612-1618, respectively. Each ofthe directional icons 1612-1618 have been animated to remain pointingtoward the associated POIs, despite the change in orientation of themobile device 1620.

As illustrated in FIG. 16, directional icons 1602, 1606, and 1608 arereferred to as “static” icons because they do not “bounce” like thedirectional icon 1604. However, the directional icons 1602, 1606, and1608, as well as the directional icon 1604, may, in response to anorientation change of the mobile device 1600, “move,” or be animated toremain pointed toward their respective POI, despite being referred to as“static.”

FIG. 17 is a flowchart illustrating a computer-implemented process 1700for selecting directional icons for POIs. Briefly, the process 1700includes: generating, by a search engine, two or more search results,each of the search results identifying a respective POI; determining adistance between a mobile device and each POI; selecting a directionalicon for each POI based on the distance to the respective POI;generating code which, when invoked by the mobile device, causes themobile device to display information identifying the POIs and, for eachPOI, the directional icon selected for the respective POI; andtransmitting the code from the search engine to the mobile device.Unlike the process illustrated in FIG. 13, in process 1700 the selectionof the directional icons occurs at the search engine instead of themobile device.

In further detail, when the process 1700 begins (1702), two or moresearch results are generated by a search engine (1704), with each of thesearch results identifying a respective POI. For example, search resultsmay be generated by the search engine 342 included in the server 302(FIG. 3). The search engine 342 may generate search results in responseto a user-entered search term. The user may enter a search term using asearch interface displayed on a desktop computer or on the mobile device304 (FIG. 3). As another example, the search engine 342 may generatesearch results which include POIs which are located within apredetermined distance from the mobile device 304.

A distance between a mobile device and each POI is determined (1706).For example, the mobile device 304 (FIG. 3) may determine andcommunicate its location to the server 302 over the network 306. Themobile device may, for example, determine its location using thenavigation module 332 and the GPS receiver 364. Determining the locationof POIs may include accessing a location database such as the businessdirectory 340 of FIG. 3, which stores information identifying POIs, andgeographic coordinates associated with each identified POI. Note that ifthe search results represent POIs which are nearby to the mobile device,the distance between the mobile device and each POI may have beendetermined as a result of determining nearby POIs.

A directional icon is selected for each POI based on the distance to therespective POI (1708). The selection of directional icons issubstantially the same as described for reference S1308 of the process1300 (FIG. 13), however, in the process 1700 the selection occurs by thesearch engine.

Code is generated, which, when invoked by the mobile device, causes themobile device to display information identifying the POIs and for eachPOI, the directional icon selected for the respective POI (1710). Forexample, the code generator 344 (FIG. 3) may generate HTML code whichmay, when executed, result in the display, for each POI, of a POI nameand other identifying information along with a directional icon. Thegenerated code may refer to directional icons stored in the directionalicon database 339 on the mobile device 304, or the code may refer todirectional icons stored in the server 302 (e.g., in medium 312) orstored on another server.

The code is transmitted from the search engine to the mobile device(1712), thereby ending the process 1700 (1714). For example, the codemay be transmitted from the server 302 to the mobile device 304 acrossthe network 304 (FIG. 3).

The identification of interesting POIs may be enhanced by boosting therelevance of POIs that have been rated by past visitors of the POI, bylocal residents of a particular geographic area in which the POI islocated, and/or by other past users who have similar characteristics orpreferences as the user. Since the usefulness of the identificationtechnique is increased when more ratings are available, users may beencouraged to assign more ratings by removing the barriers whichtypically prevent or discourage potential raters from critiquing a POIthat they have visited.

From the perspective of a potential rater, the hassles associated withtyping or otherwise entering information which identifies a particularPOI to be rated, or which disambiguates a nearby POI that is to be ratedfrom other POIs which are similarly named but that are nowhere near theuser, are often sufficiently burdensome to prevent the potential raterfrom going through the trouble of assigning a rating. For instance, toassign a rating to a particular outlet of a global coffee shop chainthat they are standing in, a potential rater might otherwise need toenter the name of the chain, wait, enter the city of the particularoutlet, wait, enter the street on which the particular outlet islocated, wait, then perhaps disambiguate among multiple outletsassociated with the street, including outlets which are nowhere near theuser. This problem is exacerbated when the potential rater is not awareof their specific location to the extent that would be necessary todisambiguate among multiple outlets.

By removing the burdens associated with manually identifying aparticular POI, potential raters may be more inclined to rate POIs. Toaccomplish this, a rating control may be automatically displayed on theuser interface of the mobile device to allow the user to quickly assigna rating to the POI as a user's mobile device physically approaches aPOI, or perhaps as other criterion are satisfied. Since POIs mayautomatically be identified based in part upon their proximity to theuser, a user would no longer be required to enter identificationinformation for POIs that they visit. Such an approach would encourageusers to enter more ratings for more POIs. These ratings may be factoredinto the scores that are associated with POIs in the variousgeographic-area-specific databases, rendering low- or high-rated POIsless likely or more likely to be considered interesting or relevant,respectively, than other unrated POIs.

When the information associated with the identified POIs and thedirectional icons have been displayed, a user input may be received ordetected (FIG. 2, 208). For example, a user may refine a query, such asby selecting a different POI category on a user interface. As anotherexample, a user may select a review button or link to review a POI. Theuser may also select a link or a button to obtain and display detailedinformation about a particular POI.

FIGS. 18 through 21 generally illustrate the action of displaying arating control, which occurs when a user selects a review link or button(FIG. 2, 210). The rating control may, for example, allow the user toselect a rating (e.g., three out of four stars), and optionally to enterdetailed comments about a POI. The review button or link may bedisplayed when the mobile device is located within a threshold distanceof a POI (i.e., it may be determined that a user is in or near aparticular POI) or, based on various factors such as the category orservice type associated with the POI, when it is determined that theuser has probably visited or patronized the POI.

FIG. 18 is a flowchart illustrating a computer-implemented process 1800for receiving a rating for a POI. Briefly, the process 1800 includesdetermining a location of a mobile device; automatically identifying aPOI located within a predetermined distance of the location; providing,on a user interface of the mobile device, a rating control for allowingthe user to rate the identified POI; and receiving the rating for theidentified POI from the user, using the rating control. Because therating may be entered without requiring the user to type in the name oraddress of the POI to be rated, this process may be referred to as a “notyping” rating process, and the rating control may similarly be referredto has a “no typing” rating control.

In further detail, when the process 1800 begins (1802), a location of amobile device is determined (1804). In one example, the location of themobile device may be determined using GPS or other approaches. Inanother example, a dead reckoning process may be used to estimate thecurrent position of the mobile device based upon a previously determinedposition. As another example, a camera on the mobile device may capturean image of a landmark or text (e.g., signage) and the mobile device maydetermine the current location based on the captured image. As anotherexample, the user of the mobile device may directly input the locationof the mobile device, such as by selecting a location on a map or byentering an address or other location identifying information, bydocking or connecting the mobile device with another device which has aknown location, or by automatically parsing the user's appointments todetermine where the user is expected to be at a known point-in-time.

One or more POIs located within a predetermined distance of the mobiledevice location are automatically identified (1806). For example, a zoneof interest within a predetermined distance (e.g., one hundred feet)from the mobile device location may be defined, and POIs within thedefined zone of interest may be identified. For example, FIG. 19illustrates a square zone 1902 defined around a location 1904 of amobile device 1906. The square zone 1902 may be defined by coordinates1908-1914. Other types of zones of interest may be defined, such as arectangular zone, a circular zone, an arcuate zone in a certaindirection relative to the mobile device 1906, or a zone of another typeof shape. The zone may be a two-dimensional area, or a three-dimensionalvolume.

Upon defining the zone 1902, a query is be submitted to a businessdirectory 1920, where the query includes query terms which specify thecoordinates which define the zone 1902 (e.g., coordinates 1908-1914).The business directory 1920 stores information identifying POIs andgeographic coordinates associated with each identified POI. For example,the business directory 1920 stores information indicating that a POI “A”is located at coordinates (x₅, y₅) 1922, that a POI “B” is located atcoordinates (x₆, y₆) 1924, and that a POI “C” is located at coordinates(x₇, y₇) 1926.

The business directory 1920 may provide a service where, when a set ofinput coordinates is provided which define a geographic zone, a datastructure (e.g., a list) is provided which identifies POIs that arelocated within the zone. For example, if the coordinates 1908-1914 whichdefine the zone 1902 are submitted in a query to the business directory1920, a search, calculation, process or other algorithm may be performedto determine that the POI “B” is located within the zone 1902 and thatthe POI “A” and POI “C” are located outside of the zone 1902.

Where the service determines that more than one POI is located withinthe zone 1902, all, a subset, or one of the POIs may be identified. Theselection of the subset or the POI may be based on a random selection, aproximity between the POI and the mobile device 1904, confidence orrelevance measures, or based on any other criteria. Alternatively, thezone 1902 may be automatically redefined (e.g., to be smaller, or toexhibit a different shape), and the query may be re-executed using theboundaries of the redefined zone. Similarly, if the service determinesthat no POIs are located with the zone, the zone may be automaticallyredefined (e.g., to be larger, or to exhibit a different shape), and thequery may be re-executed using the boundaries of the redefined zone.

Returning to FIG. 18, a rating control is provided on a user interfaceof the mobile device for allowing the user to rate the identified POI(1808). For example, FIG. 19 illustrates a rating control 1930 displayedon a user interface 1932 of a mobile device 1934. While the illustratedrating control 1930 is a rating bar that includes a scale of zero tofive stars, other types of rating controls may be provided, includingstar rating bars which use fewer or more stars, or icons other thanstars. For example, one or more check boxes, command buttons, optionbuttons, slider bars, text boxes, or graphical buttons may be provided.Graphical buttons may be provided in pairs. For example, “smiley face”and “sad face” buttons, or “thumbs up” and “thumbs down” buttons may beprovided. As will be discussed in more detail below, in someimplementations, the rating control is provided after differentcriteria, other than distance or proximity criteria, have beensatisfied.

Returning to FIG. 18, the rating for the identified POI is received fromthe user (1810), using the rating control, thereby ending the process1800 (1812). For example, as shown in FIG. 19, the user may touch a starof the rating control 1930, or control a cursor to hover over the starof the rating control 1930, to indicate their rating of the POI “B.” Forexample, the user has selected a star 1936 to indicate that the ratingfor POI “B” is “three out of five stars”. The received rating may bestored, in association with POI “B”, in one or more databases (e.g.,review databases or geographic area-specific databases).

In response to receiving the user's rating, the user may be clusteredwith other users, based on a similarity of the rating with the ratingsfor the POI collectively received from the other users. For example, auser may highly rate certain types of coffee shops and may be clusteredwith other users who provide similar ratings. In response to receivingthe user's rating, or at other times, a different POI may be identifiedthat other users in the cluster have rated highly. The different POI maybe recommended to the user, such as by displaying identifyinginformation about the recommended POI on the user interface of themobile device. In general, the user's rating is received withoutrequiring the user to input identification information associated withthe identified POI (e.g., to type in the name or location of “POI B”).In other words, the rating control 930 provides “one-click rating,” with“no typing required” features for the user, which provide advantagesover other approaches for receiving user ratings.

In other approaches, before entering a rating, a user may be required toselect a rating interface, to type in the name and address of a POI, andto disambiguate between similarly named POIs. In doing so, the user mayelect to delay the entry of a rating until a later time, in which casethe user may fail to remember to enter the rating, may provide fewerdetailed comments, or may forget certain aspects of their visit whichmight affect the accuracy of the rating. The relative inconvenience ofentering a rating under this approach may discourage users fromproviding ratings. In contrast with the enhanced approach, the ratingcontrol 1930 may be automatically presented to the user when it has beendetermined that the user is at or near the respective POI, at which timethe accurate rating for the POI may be assigned in a timely fashion,with a single touch or click.

If another type of rating control is used, the rating may be received bythe user as a result of the user interacting with the control. Forexample, some rating controls may allow a user to assign a letter grade(e.g., “A”, “B”, “C”, “D”, “F”) or a numerical rating (e.g., from 1 to10), such as by selecting an option button or check box or by entering avalue. The user may interact with a check box or a pair of optionbuttons to indicate, for example, a “yes/no,” “like/dislike,”or a“recommend/don't recommend” rating. A rating control may be a one ortwo-dimensional slider bar which a user may slide from left to right orfrom top to bottom to indicate their relative satisfaction with variousaspects of the POI. If graphical icons are used, a user may select a“smiley face” or “thumbs up” button to indicate a positive rating and a“sad face” or “thumbs down” button to indicate a negative rating.

One or more POI and/or query databases may be updated in response toreceiving a rating from a user. In other words, one or more databasesmay be updated to account for the fact that, by rating a POI, the userexpressed interest in the POI, and that the POI is relatively more orless interesting than other POIs. Reviewing a POI is another trigger ofPOI or query database updates, in addition to updates triggered fromother selections of POI information on a mobile device (e.g., detailedinformation) or selection of a POI on an interface such as the userinterface 400 (FIG. 4). A user who has had recent experience with thePOI and who subsequently rates a POI may have a better perspective than,for example, a user using interface 400 who is perhaps a far distanceaway from the selected POI. Accordingly, database updates resulting fromPOI reviews may be given more weight than POI selections from interfacessuch as the user interface 400.

Similar to the process illustrated in FIG. 7 (i.e., when an“on-the-scene” user rates a POI), one or more geographic areas areselected, an increment value is selected for each of the selectedgeographic areas, a score associated with the particular POI isdetermined for each of the selected geographic areas and is incremented,and the incremented score is stored in association with informationidentifying the particular POI for each of the selected geographicareas. A low rating may decrement a score associated with a POI in oneor more databases (i.e., the increment value may be negative). Becausethe “on-the-scene” user may have a better perspective of whether aparticular POI is a neighborhood gem than a user of a search engine, theincrement value selected for the “on-the-scene” user may have a largermagnitude than the increment value that would be selected for the userof the search engine.

FIG. 20 illustrates other user interfaces for receiving a rating from auser. For example, a user interface 2002 may be displayed on a mobiledevice 2004. A list of popular, nearby POIs may be displayed, asillustrated by a POI list 2006 displayed on a user interface 2008. ThePOI list 2006 displays entries 2010 a-f, where each entry 2010 a-fincludes a POI name or other identifying information, a distanceindicator, and a directional icon.

If the mobile device 2004 moves to within a threshold distance of a POI,a rating interest control may be displayed which allows the user toindicate whether they are interested in rating the identified POI. Forexample, a user interface 2012 includes a rating interest control 2014displayed in an entry 2016 c. In this example, the rating interestcontrol 2014 is displayed because the distance between the mobile device2004 and a “Krung Thai” POI associated with the entry 2010 a has droppedbelow a threshold distance (e.g., 0.05 miles).

In this example, the rating interest control 2014 is a “How Was YourMeal?” button which the user may press to indicate an interest in ratingthe respective “Krung Thai” POI. Other types of rating interest controlsmay be provided. For example, a button or link with “Click Here toReview,” “Review,” “What did you think?,” “Rate,” or another caption maybe provided. The rating interest control may be a check box or one ormore option button controls. The caption of a rating interest controlmay be customized based on the type of POI. For example, a “How Was YourMeal?” caption may be used if the POI is a restaurant, and a “Rate ThisStation?” caption may be used if the POI is a gas station. The POI typeand associated caption may be retrieved, for example, by querying abusiness directory (e.g., business directory 1920, FIG. 19).

To accommodate the rating interest control 2014, the height of the entry2016 c may increase, as compared to the corresponding entry 2010 c.Other entries, such as entries 2016 a, 2016 b, 2016 d, and 2016 e, maybe animated to appear smaller, or to have shrunk (e.g., have had theirheight lessened as compared to the height of respective entries 2010 a,2010 b, 2010 d, and 2010 e). In some implementations, the size of therespective directional icons for the entries 2016 a, 2016 b, 2016 d, and2016 e may also be animated to shrink in response to the insertion ofthe rating interest control 2014. The increase in height of the entry2016 c may cause some entries to “fall off” the POI list 2006. Forexample, the entry 2010 f displayed on the user interface 2008 has beenremoved from the interface 2012 to make room for the rating interestcontrol 2014. If the mobile device 2004 is moved so that the distancebetween the mobile device 2004 and the “Krung Thai” POI is greater thana threshold distance, the rating interest control 2014 may be removedfrom the user interface 2014, the sizes of the entries 2016 a-e may berestored to the heights of the respective entries 2010 a-e, and theentry 2010 f may be restored to the POI list 2006.

If the user selects the rating interest control 2014, a rating control2020 may be displayed, as shown on a user interface 2022. The user mayuse the rating control 2020 to rate the “Krung Thai” POI, such as byselecting one of the five stars. As discussed above, rating controlsother than star rating bars may be used. The rating control 2020 mayhave the same or a different height than the rating interest control2014. If the height of the rating control 2020 and the rating interestcontrol 2014 are different, the height of entries 2024 a-d may beadjusted, as compared to the height of the respective entries 2016 a-e.

In some implementations, an interface 2030 may be displayed after arating has been received from the user, to allow the user to enterdetailed comments. For example, the user may enter comments into a textbox 2032. In some implementations, the text box 2032 allows the entry ofup to a maximum number of characters (e.g., sixty characters). A virtualkeyboard 2034 may be displayed which allows the user to enteralphanumeric characters. The virtual keyboard 2034 may be displayed, forexample, if it is detected that the mobile device 2004 does not have aphysical keyboard. The user may submit their detailed comments byselecting an “Ok” button 2036.

In response to the detection of the mobile device 2004 being close to aPOI, one of a number of user interface flows may be used, usingdifferent combinations of interfaces shown in FIG. 20. In someimplementations, the interface 2012 is displayed, followed by thedisplay of the interface 2022, followed by the display of the interface2030. In other implementations, the interface 2012 is not shown, ratherthe interface 2022 is displayed, followed by the display of interface2030. In yet other implementations, only the interface 2022 is displayedwhen the mobile device draws close to the POI.

FIG. 21 illustrates other user interfaces for receiving a rating from auser. For example, a user interface 2102 may be displayed on a mobiledevice 2104. A list of popular or interesting, nearby POIs may bedisplayed, as illustrated by a POI list 2106 displayed on a userinterface 2108. The POI list 2106 displays entries 2110 a-f, where eachentry 2110 a-f includes a POI name or other identifying information, adistance indicator, and a directional icon. The POI list 2106 may bepart of a default interface displayed if a tab 2112 is selected. The tab2112 may be selected by default.

A review tab 2114 may appear if the mobile device is within a thresholddistance of one or more any POIs, or within a threshold distance of oneor more of the POIs displayed in the POI list 2106. If the mobile device2104 is moved so that the mobile device 2104 is no longer within athreshold distance of at least one POI, the review tab 2114 may beremoved from the interface 2108. Assuming the review tab 2114 isdisplayed, if the user selects the review tab 2114, an interface 2120may be displayed.

The interface 2120 includes a review candidate list 2121 which includesreview entries 2122 a-c, where each review entry 2122 a-c includes arating control (2124 a-c, respectively), a POI name or other identifyinginformation, and possibly other POI information, such as an address. Thereview candidate list 2121 is an example of a disambiguation control,which presents candidate POIs available for the user to review andallows the user to select a POI to review.

The user may interact with one of the rating controls 2124 a-c to rateone of the respective POIs. The POIs shown in the interface 2120 mayinclude POIs from the POI list 2106 and may also include POIs not shownin the POI list 2106. The POI list 2106 may be displaying POIs whichmatch a particular query, such as a category query. For example, the POIlist 2106 is displaying POIs which have a category of “Thai Restaurant.”The review entries shown on the interface 2120 may be associated withany POI which is within a threshold distance of the mobile device 2104.For example, the review entry 2122 b is associated with a restaurant POIthat is not a Thai restaurant (like those shown in POI list 2106), andthe review entry 2122 c is associated with a gas station POI.

If the user selects a rating control 2124 a-c, an interface 2130 may bedisplayed to allow the user to enter detailed comments. The interface2130 is similar to the interface 2030, described above with respect toFIG. 20. In some implementations, the interface 2130 is not shown whenthe user enters a rating.

In some implementations, a rating control is provided after thesatisfaction of criteria other than the detection of a POI locatedwithin a predetermined distance of the mobile device. Table 7 belowlists criteria for various POI categories:

TABLE 7 Example categories and possible criterion other than proximityCATEGORY CRITERIA Restaurant distance <= 100 ft duration > 10 min time =8-10 am, 11-2 pm, 5-7 pm Gas Station distance < 50 ft duration > 2 minfuel level Δ > +2 gal Coffee Shop distance <= 10 ft duration > 1 minwireless signal detected Spa distance < 50 ft duration > 90 min RetailStore distance <= 25 ft duration >= 15 min credit card charge detected

If a POI located within a predetermined distance of a mobile device isidentified, a category associated with the identified POI may bedetermined. For example, a category such as “restaurant,” “gas station,”“coffee shop,” “spa,” or “grocery store” may be determined by querying abusiness directory. After a category is determined, one or more criteriaassociated with the category are determined. For example, the criteriamay be determined by accessing a category/criterion database (FIG. 3). Arating control may be provided on the user interface after determiningthat the criteria have been satisfied.

For example, as shown in Table 7, criteria for a restaurant category mayinclude criteria requiring that the distance between the POI and themobile device be less than or equal to one hundred feet, that theduration (or “linger” time) be greater than ten minutes, and that thetime of day be either between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m., between 11 a.m. and 2p.m., or between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. (e.g., during breakfast, lunch, ordinner hours). In this example, the rating control is provided for arestaurant POI if the criteria specified for the restaurant category aresatisfied.

Other criteria may be defined for other POI category types. For example,as shown in Table 7, criteria for a “spa” category may include criteriarequiring that the distance between the POI and the mobile device beless than fifty feet, and that the duration be greater than ninetyminutes. Criteria may be configured based on expected user behavior forPOIs of a certain category. For example, the test against ninety minuteduration time for spa POIs is longer than the test against ten minutesduration time for restaurant POIs because it may be expected that theduration of a visit to a spa would be significantly longer than theduration of a visit to a restaurant, a coffee shop, or a gas station.

As shown in Table 7, the criteria for a gas station category may requirethat the distance between the POI and the mobile device be less thanfifty feet, that the duration time be greater than two minutes (e.g.,gas station visits may be relatively short), and that a fuel levelchange be a positive increase of at least two gallons. Criteria for acoffee shop category may include criteria requiring that the distancebetween the POI and the mobile device be less than or equal to ten feet(e.g., coffee shops may be smaller in size than other POIs and thereforeto verify that the user is “in” the coffee shop, the distance value totest against may be less than other POIs), that the duration time isgreater than one minute (e.g., a person may go in and out of a coffeeshop relatively quickly if they are getting their coffee “to go”), andthat a wireless (e.g., WiFi) signal is detected (e.g., due to theprevalence of WiFi availability in coffee shops, coffee shop criteriamay include WiFi detection as part of verifying a coffee shop visit).

Criteria for a retail store category may include criteria requiring thatthe distance between the POI and the mobile device be less than or equalto twenty five feet, that the duration time is greater than or equal tofifteen minutes, and that a credit card charge has been detected. Othercriteria may be configured for a category, for example requiring thatthe time of day be during the hours that the store is open (e.g.,between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.) or that the current day not be a weekend orfederal holiday.

The gas station, coffee shop, and retail store categories illustratescenarios where the mobile device (or perhaps, for example, a serverdevice in communication with the mobile device) receives a signal fromsome other device. For example, while at a gas station POI, the mobiledevice may receive a signal from a vehicle computing devicecommunicating a delta change in fuel level. As another example, while ata coffee shop POI, the mobile device may detect the presence of awireless (WiFi) network. As yet another example, while at a retailstore, the mobile device may receive a signal (e.g., from apoint-of-sale computing device) that a credit card charge has been made.In some implementations, the signal indicating that a credit card chargehas been made may be received (e.g., by a server device) some time after(e.g., three hours after) the visit to the retail store. In thisexample, the rating control may be provided after receiving the signalindicating the credit card charge (e.g., when the user is most likely nolonger “in” the retail store).

Various approaches may be used to identify POIs that are predicted to beof interest to a user. Some of these approaches identify POIs based onthe user's own past behavior, while others base their identifications onthe behavior of other users who have searched for or visited aparticular POI in the past, and who have similarities with the user. Ineither case, once a POI is identified, the user's mobile device displaysinformation that may be used to entice the user to travel outside oftheir present location in order to visit the POI. For example bydisplaying helpful navigation information or detailed review, rating, orother contextual information, the user interface may display informationthat allows the user to decide that a desire or need will be satisfiedat the POI, and that the user's time would be well spent by traveling tothe POI.

Aside from displaying information regarding POIs in which the user ispredicted to be interested, the mobile device may be used to identify aPOI that the user is near and can see, and thus has a actual interestin, and to display corresponding contextual information. Thus, inaddition to identifying POIs based on the user's own past behavior or onother past user's behavior, the mobile device can also identify POIsbased on the user's present behavior (i.e., based on what the user islooking at when a control is selected), and can display detailedinformation regarding these identified POIs. In this regard, theenhanced identification technique described by this specification may beused in a greater number of situations, facilitating informationretrieval regarding POIs in which the user may be interested (when theyhave not made a specific identification), or regarding POIs in which theuser is actually interested or becomes interested, as their interest ispiqued.

The identification of a nearby POI by a user may be a better indicationthat the POI is interesting to the user than other techniques whichidentify POIs based on past behaviors. That being said, however, a usermay identify a POI as appearing interesting, may be presented withdetailed information about that POI, may determine based on reading thedetailed information that the POI is not in fact interesting, and thenmay wish to revert to one or more of these other techniques to suggestother POIs that may interest them, based on past behaviors.

To identify a POI that piques their interest, the user may point theirmobile device at the POI and press or otherwise select a designatedcontrol (e.g., the “Pronto button”) on the device, where the control maybe a physical button, a soft key, or a software element alone. Thisidentification may occur when the user walks or drives by a POI thatstrikes them as being interesting. Upon pressing the Pronto button, theGPS location and compass heading of the mobile device are determined,and information regarding one or more of the POIs that are within thefield of view of the mobile device is selected and displayed on the userinterface.

If the information regarding the POIs is not stored on the mobile devicewhen the Pronto button is pressed, that information may be pre-cached tothe mobile device. Where pointing the mobile device means pointing acamera of the mobile device at the POI, the user interface of the mobiledevice may display a live video feed or image taken at the time thePronto button is selected, and detailed information about the POI may beoverlaid on the screen.

FIGS. 22 through 26 generally illustrate the actions of obtaining anddisplaying detailed information regarding identified POIs (FIG. 2, 212).These actions may occur when a user selects a link or a buttonassociated with a particular POI on a user interface of a mobile device,or when the user selects a designated button while pointing some portionof the mobile device at a particular POI. The detailed information mayinclude advertisements or promotions corresponding to the POI, video orimage data, ratings, reviews, contact information, hours, or otherinformation regarding the particular POI.

FIG. 22 is a flowchart illustrating a computer-implemented process 2200for displaying information. Briefly, the process 2200 includesdetermining a position and a heading of a mobile device; defining a zoneof interest based on the position and heading of the mobile device;identifying one or more POIs that are located within the zone ofinterest; determining, for each of the identified POIs, a distancebetween the mobile device and the respective POI; selecting one or moreof the identified POIs based on the distances; and displayinginformation identifying the selected POIs on a user interface of themobile device.

In further detail, when the process 2200 begins (2202), a position and aheading of a mobile device are determined (2204). The location of themobile device may be determined using GPS techniques, triangulationtechniques based on WiFi or cellular tower signals, or using some othertechnique. The heading of the mobile device may be determined, forexample, using the compass 366 (FIG. 3), and may represent a truebearing or magnetic bearing.

As another example, the heading of the mobile device may be determinedbased on the historical travel path of the mobile device. A historicaltravel path may be calculated based on the recorded location of themobile device at various past points in time. For example, thehistorical path of the mobile device may be plotted over a recentinterval (e.g., the past minute or the past five minutes) and anexpected travel path may be calculated and used as the heading of themobile device. Alternatively, the historical travel path or expectedtravel path may be used to error correct the heading of the mobiledevice.

A zone of interest is defined based on the position and heading of themobile device (2206). The zone of interest may be defined based on afield of view of a camera of the mobile device. For example, asillustrated in FIG. 23, a camera of a mobile device 2302 captures animage 2304 which is displayed on a user interface 2306 of the mobiledevice 2302. The image 2304 includes an image of a street and businesseslocated on the street (i.e., POI “A” 2308 and POI “B” 2310). In theexamples provided by FIGS. 22 to 26, the zone of interest defined byprocess 2200 is different from the zone of interest defined by process1700, although the techniques for defining an area or volume of a knownsize based on an initial starting position are similar. In otherexamples, the zone of interest defined by process 2200 is the same asthe zone of interest defined by process 1700.

A triangular zone of interest 2312 may be defined to align with thefield of view of the camera. A first vertex 2314 of the zone of interest2312 occurs at the position of the mobile device 2302 (e.g., (x₀, y₀)).Where the zone of interest is triangular, the size of the zone ofinterest 2312 depends on the height 2316 of the triangular zone ofinterest 2312. Since the process 2200 is used to identify POIs at whichthe user is looking, the height 2316 may be selected based upon anexpected viewing distance of the user. For instance, in a dense urbanenvironment or if the user is walking slowly, a small height may beselected (e.g., one city block, or 200 feet). In a rural environment, orif the user is driving quickly in a car, a larger height may be selected(e.g., one quarter mile).

Alternatively a preset height or a user selected height may be used,such as, for example, three quarters of a mile, three hundred meters, orone twelfth of one mile (e.g., two city blocks). The zone of interest2312 may extend a particular number of degrees (e.g., 30°, 45°, 60°,)180° around the heading of the mobile device 2302, as represented by anangle 2318. The angle may also be selected based upon environmental,speed, user preference or other characteristics. A second vertex 2320(x₁, y₁) and a third vertex 2322 (x₂, y₂) may be defined based, forexample, on the position of the first vertex 2314, the selected height2316, and the angle 2318.

The zone of interest may have a shape other than a triangular shape. Forexample, the zone of interest may be a circular sector shape. In someexamples, a circular sector zone of interest may have a radius lengthequal to the height 2316. In other examples, the radius length of thecircular sector may be greater than the height 2316. Similar to thetriangular zone of interest 2312, a first vertex of a circular sectorzone of interest may be defined as the position of the mobile device2302. In other words, the position of the mobile device 2302 may be thecenter of a circle upon which the circular sector is based. As with thetriangular zone of interest, the circular sector zone of interest mayextend a particular number of degrees (e.g., 60°) around the position ofthe mobile device 2302. Second and third vertices may be defined for acircular sector zone of interest, with each vertex located one radiuslength away from the position of the mobile device 2302.

The size of the zone of interest may be adjusted by changing the angleand distance (i.e., height or radius) values. As noted above, the angleand distance values may be selected based on the speed of the mobiledevice 2302 or the density of the environment surrounding the user. Forexample, a larger zone of interest may be used if the mobile device 2302is traveling at faster speeds, and a smaller zone of interest may beused if the mobile device 2302 is traveling at slower speeds. Forexample, if the mobile device 2302 is traveling at walking speed, atriangular zone of interest with a height of three hundred feet may beused; and if the mobile device 2302 is traveling in a car at thirtymiles per hour, a triangular zone of interest with a height of onequarter mile may be used. As another example, if the mobile device 2302is not moving, a circular sector zone of interest with a radius of onehundred feet may be used; and if the mobile device 2302 is traveling ina train at ninety miles per hour, a circular sector zone of interestwith a radius of one half mile may be used.

A zone of interest may be defined in two-dimensional (2D), asillustrated in FIG. 23, or a zone of interest may be defined in threedimensions (3D). For example, FIG. 24 illustrates a user 2402 holdingand pointing a mobile device 2404 at a building 2406. The user 2402 ispointing the mobile device 2404 so that the field of view of the cameraof the mobile device 2404 includes the top three stories of the building2406, and excludes the first story of the building 2406. Athree-dimensional zone of interest 2408 is defined to align with thecamera's field of view. The zone of interest 2408 may be defined byvertices 2410 a-e, where vertex 2410 a occurs at the position of themobile device 2404.

Returning to FIG. 22, one or more points of interest (POIs) that arelocated within the zone of interest are identified (2208). For example,a query may be submitted to a business directory, where the queryincludes query terms which specify the 2D or 3D coordinates which definethe zone of interest. For example, for the zone of interest 2312 of FIG.23, the coordinates defined by the vertices 2314, 2320, and 2322 may besubmitted. As another example, the coordinates which define the vertex2304 are submitted, as are desired zone of interest size or shapecharacteristics, and the definition of the zone of interest occurs by asearch engine or by the business directory itself.

As another example, for the zone of interest 2408 of FIG. 24, thecoordinates defined by the vertices 2410 a-e may be submitted. Thebusiness directory stores information identifying POIs and geographiccoordinates associated with each identified POI. For example, inreference to FIG. 23, the business directory stores the coordinates ofPOIs “A” to “F” (2322 to 2334, respectively). POI “A” 2322 correspondsto building 2308 in the image 2304, and POI “B” corresponds to building2310 in the image 2304.

The business directory provides a service that, when a set of inputcoordinates is provided which define a geographic zone, a data structure(e.g., a list) is provided which identifies POIs that are located withinthe zone. If the business directory stores only 2D coordinates and 3Dcoordinates are input, the business directory may define a 2D regionwhich represents a footprint of the 3D coordinates, or third dimensioncoordinates may be ignored.

In the example illustrated in FIG. 23, if the coordinates 2314, 2320,and 2322 that define the zone of interest 2312 are submitted in a queryto the business directory, a search, calculation, process or otheralgorithm may be performed to determine that the POI “A” 2324, the POI“B” 2326, the POI “C” 2328, and the POI “F” 2334 are located within thezone 2312. In this example, the resulting data structure provided by thebusiness directory would not identify the POI “E” 2332 or the POI “D”2330, since those POIs are located outside of the zone of interest 2312.In the example illustrated FIG. 24, if the coordinates 2410 a-d aresubmitted to the business directory, the business directory may providea data structure identifying a realtor POI 2412 and a law firm POI 2414,but the other businesses outside of the zone of interest 2408 (i.e., theconvenience store) would not be identified.

If no POIs are identified within the zone of interest, the zone ofinterest may be iteratively increased in size until a POI is identified.For example, a triangular zone of interest with a longer height or widerangle may be defined, or a circular sector zone of interest with agreater radius or wider angle may be defined. Coordinates defining thelarger zone of interest may be submitted to the business directoryservice to determine whether one or more POIs are located within theenlarged zone of interest. If there are still no POIs located within theenlarged zone of interest, the iterative process may again be performedto further enlarge the zone of interest, and the business directory maybe re-queried to determine whether there are POIs located within thefurther enlarged zone of interest.

The iterative process may be performed until the zone of interestreaches a maximum size, until a POI is identified, or until the userhalts the process. For example, an iterative process may iterativelyenlarge a triangular zone of interest until either one or more POIs areidentified within the zone of interest or until the height of the zoneof interest is a threshold distance (e.g., two miles). Similarly, if toomany POIs are identified within the zone of interest, the zone ofinterest may be iteratively decreased in size, until a smaller number ofPOIs are identified.

A distance between the mobile device and each respective POI isdetermined (2210). For example, for each identified POI, a straight-linedistance between the mobile device and the POI may be determined usingcoordinates of the POI retrieved from the business directory. As shownin Table 8, in the example of FIG. 23, the distance between the mobiledevice 2302 and POIs “A”, “B”, “C”, and “F” are one hundred feet, ninetyfive feet, two hundred fifty feet, and two hundred feet, respectively.As discussed in more detail below, these distances may be scaled to takethe angle between the mobile device and each identified POI intoaccount.

TABLE 8 Straight-Line Distance Between Mobile Device and Each POI, Rawand Scaled POI Distance Angle Scaled Distance A 100 ft  −5° 100 ft B  95ft −25° 142.5 ft   C 250 ft  +8° 250 ft D — — — E — — — F 200 −19° 200

Returning to FIG. 22, one or more of the identified POIs are selected,based on the distances (S2212). In some implementations, the N closestPOIs may be selected, where N is any positive integer. For example, theone single POI which is closest to the mobile device may be selected. Asanother example, the five POIs closest to the mobile device may beselected, or all POIs within a certain threshold distance may beselected.

In some implementations, the distances between the identified POIs andthe mobile device are scaled prior to selection. For example, for eachof the identified POIs, an angle between the mobile device and therespective POI may be determined and the distance between the mobiledevice and the respective POI may be scaled based on the determinedangle.

For the example of FIG. 23, Table 8 indicates that the angles betweenthe POIs “A”, “B”, “C”, and “F” and the mobile device 2302 are −5°,−25°, +8°, and −19°, respectively. Angles for POIs disposed to the rightof a center line 2336 may have positive values and angles for POIsdisposed to the left of the center line 2336 may have negative values.The center line 2336 may itself align with the focal axis of a camera onthe mobile device 2302, or a longitudinal or any other axis associatedwith the mobile device 2302 itself.

Because the user is assumed to be pointing directly at a POI thatinterests the user, the distances associated with the various identifiedmay be scaled based on the angle, so that the respective distanceincreases as a magnitude of the angle increases. In other words, thecloser a POI is to the center line 2336, the more likely that the useris pointing at that POI, and the less its distance is scaled.Conversely, the further the POI is from the center line 2336, the lesslikely that the user is pointing at that POI, and the greater itsdistance is scaled.

In some implementations, the respective distances associated with POIsthat are disposed within a threshold angle of the center line 2336 arenot scaled (or, put another way, are scaled by a zero amount, or by afactor of 100%). The respective distances associated with POIs that aredisposed greater than the threshold angle from the center line 2336 arescaled by a non-zero amount (i.e. are doubled, or are scaled by a factorof 150% or 200%). For example, POIs disposed greater than a magnitude of30° degrees from the center line 2336 (i.e., less than −30°, or greaterthan)+30° have their distances scaled by multiplying their raw distanceby 150% or by a factor of 1.5, and POIs disposed within a positive ornegative thirty degrees from the center line 2336 may have theirdistances scaled by multiplying their raw distance by 100% or by afactor of 1.0.

A threshold line 2338 is aligned at a −30° from the center line 2336 anda threshold line 2340 is disposed at a +30° from the center line 2336,to define four separate triangles or quadrants within the zone ofinterest 2312. POIs located to the left of the threshold line 2338 or tothe right of the threshold line 2340 may have their distances scaled. Inother words, distances for POIs located within the central quadrants ofthe zone 2312 may be unscaled and distances for POIs located within theouter quadrants of the zone 2312 may be scaled. For example, the POI “B”2326 is located to the left of the threshold line 2338. Table 8indicates that the scaled distance for POI “B” is 142.5 feet, a fiftypercent increase from the unscaled distance of 95.0 feet. POIs “A”, “C”,and “F” are each disposed between the threshold lines 2338-2440 andtherefore do not have their distances scaled. Table 8 indicates that thescaled distances for POIs “A”, “C”, and “F” are each equal to therespective unscaled distance.

Although the POI “B” 2326 is physically closer to the mobile device 2302than the POI “A” 2324 (i.e., the raw, straight line distance associatedwith POI “B” 2326 is less than the raw, straight line distanceassociated with POI “A” 2324), the scaled distance for POI “B” 2326 isgreater than the scaled distance for POI “A” 2324. Therefore, inimplementations where the closest POI is selected and the distance isscaled based on angle, POI “A” 2324 would be selected over POI “B,”since POI “A” 2324 has a smaller scaled distance. In implementationswhere more than one POI is selected, the POIs with the N smallest scaleddistances may be selected, where the selected POIs may include POI “A”2324, POI “B” 2326” and perhaps other POIs.

A graph 2342 illustrates a relationship between angle and scaled amount.The X axis of the graph 2342 represents the angle from the center line2336 and the Y axis represents the amount that a distance for a POIlocated at a particular angle is scaled. As shown in the graph 2342, thescaled amount increases as the magnitude of the angle increases. Theapplication of scaling to raw distances based on angles is similar tothe application of a fall-off function to scale scores based ongeographic-area-distance, as described above, although scaling isapplied to increase a raw distance based on an increased angle, while afall-off function is applied to decrease a score increment based on anincreased distance. As suggested by the graph 2342, the scaling functionmay be a quadratic function, or the scaling function may be any othertype of function, such as a step function.

While the threshold lines 2338 and 2340 define four triangle-shapedregions within the zone of interest 2312, in other implementations thethresholds may instead be curved lines or a non-linear series of points,such that the amount of scaling to apply depends on a combination ofdistance and angle of the POI to the mobile device 2302. Such anapproach reflects the reality that, if the user is actually pointing themobile device 2302 at a POI with reasonable diligence, the accuracy oftheir pointing is likely to increase for POIs that are located furtheraway, where the POI occupies a much smaller angle within their field ofview, than for POIs that are located very closely, where the POI mayoccupy a much larger angle within their field of view or may occupytheir entire field of view.

For example, FIG. 25 shows a zone of interest 2502 which is divided intoquadrants by curved threshold lines 2504 and 2506 and a center line2508. Similar to the example of FIG. 23, for POIs located within thecentral quadrants, the distance between the POI and a mobile device 2509is not scaled. For POIs located in the outer quadrants, the distancebetween the POI and the mobile device 2509 is scaled. The thresholdlines 2504 and 2506 are shaped such that they are relatively straight(e.g., parallel or near parallel to the center line 2508) in the portionfarther from the mobile device 2509 and curved in the portion closest tothe mobile device 2509.

The threshold lines 2504 and 2506 are shaped such that, for two POIseach disposed at a particular angle from the mobile device 2509, the POIcloser to the mobile device 2509 may be within a center quadrant (e.g.,the corresponding distance is not scaled) and the POI farther from themobile device 2509 may be outside of the center quadrants (e.g., thecorresponding distance is scaled). For example, POI “A” 2510 and POI “G”2512 are both disposed from the mobile device 2509 at the same angle (asillustrated by a line 2514). POI “A” 2510 is located within a centerquadrant and therefore the distance between POI “A” 2510 and the mobiledevice 2509 is not scaled. In contrast, POI “G” 2512 is located outsideof the center quadrants and therefore the distance between the POI “G”2512 and the mobile device 2509 is scaled.

Table 9 indicates that for POI “A” the scaled distance is the same asthe respective unscaled distance (e.g., 100.0 feet), and that for POI“G” the scaled distance (e.g., 405.0 feet) is fifty percent larger thanthe respective unscaled distance (e.g., 270 feet).

TABLE 9 Straight-Line Distance Between Mobile Device and Each POI, Rawand Scaled POI Distance Angle Scaled Distance A 100 ft  −5° 100 ft B  95ft −25° 142.5 ft   C 250 ft  +8° 250 ft D — — — E — — — F 200 −19° 300ft G 270  −5° 405 ft

Table 9 also indicates that for POI “F”, the distance to the mobiledevice 2509 is scaled (e.g., the scaled distance of 300.0 feet is equalto the respective unscaled distance of 200.0 feet multiplied by a factorof 1.5). Contrasting FIGS. 23 and 25, POI “F” 2334 in FIG. 23 is locatedinside a center quadrant and POI “F” 2516 in FIG. 25 is located at acorresponding position relative to the mobile device 2509 and outside ofa center quadrant.

In response to selecting one or more of the identified POIs, detailedinformation associated with the selected POIs may be pre-cached to themobile-device. Detailed information for a POI may include, among otherthings, contact information (e.g., address, phone number), discountoffers as provided by the operator of the POI or by third parties,rating information, such as the typed comments of one or more pastreviewers of the POI or an average past user review score, other textualinformation, video, or one or more digital images (e.g., storefronts,menus, menu selections, or a map).

Returning to FIG. 22, information identifying the selected POIs isdisplayed on a user interface of the mobile device (2214), therebyending the process 2200 (2216). For example, one or more user reviews orratings or other detailed information for the selected POIs may bedisplayed on a user interface of the mobile device. For example, asshown in FIG. 23, a user interface 2350 displays detailed informationfor the selected POI “A” 2324. The interface 2350 displays a directionalicon 2352, an address 2354, a recent user review score 2356, recent usercomments 2358, and a discount offer 2360. The user may press a button2362 to get detailed information about another POI (e.g., the user maypoint the mobile device at a different POI and press the button 2362).In other words, the process 2200 may be performed (or reperformed) inresponse to the selection of the button 2362.

As another example and as shown in FIG. 24, detailed information aboutthe realtor POI 2412 may be displayed on a mobile device user interface2440. The interface 2440 displays an address 2442, a directional icon2444, an advertisement 2446, and an average user review score 2448. Theinterface 2440 also displays a disambiguation control 2450 which allowsthe user to specify that they had intended to point at the law firm POI2414 rather than the realtor POI 2412. The use of a disambiguationcontrol is particularly useful at shopping centers where, in officiallegal or governmental records, multiple businesses may officially sharea single address or set of GPS coordinates, or where the mailing addressof multiple businesses is differentiated by unit, store, or box numberswhich have no practical correlation to geography.

FIG. 26 illustrates the displaying of information identifying a POI on amobile device. A coffee shop POI 2602 is within the field of view of acamera of a mobile device 2604 (e.g., the user of the mobile device 2604is standing on a street in front of the POI 2602 and points the mobiledevice 2604 at the POI 2602). As described above, a position and aheading of the mobile device 2604 are determined, and a zone of interestrepresenting the field of view of the camera of the mobile device 2604is determined based on the position and heading of the mobile device2604. The coffee shop POI 2602 is identified as being located within thedetermined zone of interest and the coffee shop POI 2602 is selected(e.g., because it is the POI closest to the mobile device 2604 orbecause it is the only POI within the determined zone of interest).

In response to the selection of the coffee shop POI 2602, detailedinformation relating to the POI 2602 is displayed on the mobile device2604, as shown on a user interface 2606 displayed on a mobile device2608. The user interface 2606 displays detailed information relating tothe POI 2602, such as an address 2610, a recent user review score 2612,recent user comments 2614, an average user review score 2616, and acamera image 2618.

The camera image 2618 shows an image of the coffee shop POI 2602. Insome implementations, some or all of the detailed information 2610-2618is overlaid on top of the camera image 2618. The user may select abutton 2620 to obtain information about another POI (e.g., afterpointing the mobile device 2608 at a different POI). The user may selecta button 2622 to return to a search results interface. For example, asearch results interface may display multiple POIs which were within thefield of view of the camera of the mobile device (e.g., a search resultsinterface may display thumbnail images of multiple, selected POIs).

FIG. 27 is a schematic diagram of an example of a generic computersystem 2700. The system 2700 includes a processor 2710, a memory 2720, astorage device 2730, and an input/output device 2740. Each of thecomponents 2710, 2720, 2730, and 2740 are interconnected using a systembus 2750. The processor 2710 is capable of processing instructions forexecution within the system 2700. In one implementation, the processor2710 is a single-threaded processor. In another implementation, theprocessor 2710 is a multi-threaded processor. The processor 2710 iscapable of processing instructions stored in the memory 2720 or on thestorage device 2730 to display graphical information for a userinterface on the input/output device 2740.

The memory 2720 stores information within the system 2700. In oneimplementation, the memory 2720 is a computer-readable medium. Inanother implementation, the memory 2720 is a volatile memory unit. Inyet another implementation, the memory 2720 is a non-volatile memoryunit.

The storage device 2730 is capable of providing mass storage for thesystem 2700. In one implementation, the storage device 2730 is acomputer-readable medium. In various different implementations, thestorage device 2730 may be a floppy disk device, a hard disk device, anoptical disk device, or a tape device.

The input/output device 2740 provides input/output operations for thesystem 2700. In one implementation, the input/output device 2740includes a keyboard and/or pointing device. In another implementation,the input/output device 2740 includes a display unit for displayinggraphical user interfaces.

The features described may be implemented in digital electroniccircuitry, or in computer hardware, or in combinations of computerhardware and firmware or software. The apparatus may be implemented in acomputer program product tangibly embodied in a machine-readable storagedevice, for execution by a programmable processor; and method steps maybe performed by a programmable processor executing a program ofinstructions to perform functions of the described implementations byoperating on input data and generating output. The described featuresmay be implemented advantageously in one or more computer programs thatare executable on a programmable system including at least oneprogrammable processor coupled to receive data and instructions from,and to transmit data and instructions to, a data storage system, atleast one input device, and at least one output device. A computerprogram is a set of instructions that may be used, directly orindirectly, in a computer to perform a certain activity or bring about acertain result. A computer program may be written in any form ofprogramming language, including compiled or interpreted languages, andit may be deployed in any form, including as a stand-alone program or asa module, component, subroutine, or other unit suitable for use in acomputing environment.

Suitable processors for the execution of a program of instructionsinclude, by way of example, both general and special purposemicroprocessors, and the sole processor or one of multiple processors ofany kind of computer. Generally, a processor will receive instructionsand data from a read-only memory or a random access memory or both. Theessential elements of a computer are a processor for executinginstructions and one or more memories for storing instructions and data.Generally, a computer will also include, or be operatively coupled tocommunicate with, one or more mass storage devices for storing datafiles; such devices include magnetic disks, such as internal hard disksand removable disks; magneto-optical disks; and optical disks. Storagedevices suitable for tangibly embodying computer program instructionsand data include all forms of non-volatile memory, including by way ofexample semiconductor memory devices, such as EPROM, EEPROM, and flashmemory devices; magnetic disks such as internal hard disks and removabledisks; magneto-optical disks; and CD-ROM and DVD-ROM disks. Theprocessor and the memory may be supplemented by, or incorporated in,ASICs (application-specific integrated circuits).

To provide for interaction with a user, the features may be implementedon a computer having a display device such as a CRT (cathode ray tube)or LCD (liquid crystal display) monitor for displaying information tothe user and a keyboard and a pointing device such as a mouse or atrackball by which the user may provide input to the computer.

The features may be implemented in a computer system that includes aback-end component, such as a data server, or that includes a middlewarecomponent, such as an application server or an Internet server, or thatincludes a front-end component, such as a client computer having agraphical user interface or an Internet browser, or any combination ofthem. The components of the system may be connected by any form ormedium of digital data communication such as a communication network.Examples of communication networks include, e.g., a LAN, a WAN, and thecomputers and networks forming the Internet.

The computer system may include clients and servers. A client and serverare generally remote from each other and typically interact through anetwork, such as the described one. The relationship of client andserver arises by virtue of computer programs running on the respectivecomputers and having a client-server relationship to each other.

An electronic document (which for brevity will simply be referred to asa document) may, but need not, correspond to a file. A document may bestored in a portion of a file that holds other documents, in a singlefile dedicated to the document in question, or in multiple coordinatedfiles.

Embodiments of the subject matter and the operations described in thisspecification may be implemented in digital electronic circuitry, or incomputer software, firmware, or hardware, including the structuresdisclosed in this specification and their structural equivalents, or incombinations of one or more of them. Embodiments of the subject matterdescribed in this specification may be implemented as one or morecomputer programs, i.e., one or more modules of computer programinstructions, encoded on computer storage medium for execution by, or tocontrol the operation of, data processing apparatus. Alternatively or inaddition, the program instructions may be encoded on anartificially-generated propagated signal, e.g., a machine-generatedelectrical, optical, or electromagnetic signal, that is generated toencode information for transmission to suitable receiver apparatus forexecution by a data processing apparatus.

A computer storage medium may be, or be included in, a computer-readablestorage device, a computer-readable storage substrate, a random orserial access memory array or device, or a combination of one or more ofthem. Moreover, while a computer storage medium is not a propagatedsignal, a computer storage medium may be a source or destination ofcomputer program instructions encoded in an artificially-generatedpropagated signal. The computer storage medium may also be, or beincluded in, one or more separate physical components or media (e.g.,multiple CDs, disks, or other storage devices). The operations describedin this specification may be implemented as operations performed by adata processing apparatus on data stored on one or morecomputer-readable storage devices or received from other sources.

The term “data processing apparatus” encompasses all kinds of apparatus,devices, and machines for processing data, including by way of example aprogrammable processor, a computer, a system on a chip, or multipleones, or combinations, of the foregoing. The apparatus may includespecial purpose logic circuitry, e.g., an FPGA (field programmable gatearray) or an ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit). Theapparatus may also include, in addition to hardware, code that createsan execution environment for the computer program in question, e.g.,code that constitutes processor firmware, a protocol stack, a databasemanagement system, an operating system, a cross-platform runtimeenvironment, a virtual machine, or a combination of one or more of them.The apparatus and execution environment may realize various differentcomputing model infrastructures, such as web services, distributedcomputing and grid computing infrastructures.

A computer program (also known as a program, software, softwareapplication, script, or code) may be written in any form of programminglanguage, including compiled or interpreted languages, declarative orprocedural languages, and it may be deployed in any form, including as astand-alone program or as a module, component, subroutine, object, orother unit suitable for use in a computing environment. A computerprogram may, but need not, correspond to a file in a file system. Aprogram may be stored in a portion of a file that holds other programsor data (e.g., one or more scripts stored in a markup languagedocument), in a single file dedicated to the program in question, or inmultiple coordinated files (e.g., files that store one or more modules,sub-programs, or portions of code). A computer program may be deployedto be executed on one computer or on multiple computers that are locatedat one site or distributed across multiple sites and interconnected by acommunication network.

The processes and logic flows described in this specification may beperformed by one or more programmable processors executing one or morecomputer programs to perform actions by operating on input data andgenerating output. The processes and logic flows may also be performedby, and apparatus may also be implemented as, special purpose logiccircuitry, e.g., an FPGA (field programmable gate array) or an ASIC(application-specific integrated circuit).

Processors suitable for the execution of a computer program include, byway of example, both general and special purpose microprocessors, andany one or more processors of any kind of digital computer. Generally, aprocessor will receive instructions and data from a read-only memory ora random access memory or both. The essential elements of a computer area processor for performing actions in accordance with instructions andone or more memory devices for storing instructions and data. Generally,a computer will also include, or be operatively coupled to receive datafrom or transfer data to, or both, one or more mass storage devices forstoring data, e.g., magnetic, magneto-optical disks, or optical disks.However, a computer need not have such devices. Moreover, a computer maybe embedded in another device, e.g., a mobile telephone, a personaldigital assistant (PDA), a mobile audio or video player, a game console,a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver, or a portable storage device(e.g., a universal serial bus (USB) flash drive), to name just a few.Devices suitable for storing computer program instructions and datainclude all forms of non-volatile memory, media and memory devices,including by way of example semiconductor memory devices, e.g., EPROM,EEPROM, and flash memory devices; magnetic disks, e.g., internal harddisks or removable disks; magneto-optical disks; and CD-ROM and DVD-ROMdisks. The processor and the memory may be supplemented by, orincorporated in, special purpose logic circuitry.

To provide for interaction with a user, embodiments of the subjectmatter described in this specification may be implemented on a computerhaving a display device, e.g., a CRT (cathode ray tube) or LCD (liquidcrystal display) monitor, for displaying information to the user and akeyboard and a pointing device, e.g., a mouse or a trackball, by whichthe user may provide input to the computer. Other kinds of devices maybe used to provide for interaction with a user as well; for example,feedback provided to the user may be any form of sensory feedback, e.g.,visual feedback, auditory feedback, or tactile feedback; and input fromthe user may be received in any form, including acoustic, speech, ortactile input. In addition, a computer may interact with a user bysending documents to and receiving documents from a device that is usedby the user; for example, by sending web pages to a web browser on auser's client device in response to requests received from the webbrowser.

Embodiments of the subject matter described in this specification may beimplemented in a computing system that includes a back-end component,e.g., as a data server, or that includes a middleware component, e.g.,an application server, or that includes a front-end component, e.g., aclient computer having a graphical user interface or a Web browserthrough which a user may interact with an implementation of the subjectmatter described in this specification, or any combination of one ormore such back-end, middleware, or front-end components. The componentsof the system may be interconnected by any form or medium of digitaldata communication, e.g., a communication network. Examples ofcommunication networks include a local area network (“LAN”) and a widearea network (“WAN”), an inter-network (e.g., the Internet), andpeer-to-peer networks (e.g., ad hoc peer-to-peer networks).

The computing system may include clients and servers. A client andserver are generally remote from each other and typically interactthrough a communication network. The relationship of client and serverarises by virtue of computer programs running on the respectivecomputers and having a client-server relationship to each other. In someembodiments, a server transmits data (e.g., an HTML page) to a clientdevice (e.g., for purposes of displaying data to and receiving userinput from a user interacting with the client device). Data generated atthe client device (e.g., a result of the user interaction) may bereceived from the client device at the server.

A number of implementations have been described. Nevertheless, it willbe understood that various modifications may be made without departingfrom the spirit and scope of the disclosure. Accordingly, otherimplementations are within the scope of the following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method comprising:accessing, by a mobile device, a search result identifying apoint-of-interest (POI); selecting, by the mobile device, a firstdirectional icon for the POI having a first rate of animation that isbased on a first distance to the POI at a first time; displaying, by themobile device, the first directional icon for the POI at the first time;selecting, by the mobile device, a second directional icon for the POIhaving a second rate of animation that is based on a second distance tothe POI at a second time; and displaying, by the mobile device, thesecond directional icon for the POI at the second time.
 2. The method ofclaim 1, wherein: the first directional icon is a first type ofdirectional icon; and the second directional icon is a second type ofdirectional icon that is different from the first type of directionalicons.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein: the first type of directionalicon is one of a quickly bouncing icon, or a quickly pulsating icon, andthe second type of directional icon is one of a slowly bouncing icon, ora slowly pulsating icon.
 4. The method of claim 1, further comprisingdetecting that an orientation of the mobile device has changed betweenthe first time and the second time, wherein: displaying, by the mobiledevice, the second directional icon for the POI at the second timefurther comprises animating the second directional icon to remainpointed toward the POI despite the change in the orientation of themobile device.
 5. The method of claim 3, wherein: the first and secondtypes of directional icon are quickly bouncing icons and wherein thesecond bouncing icon is animated to bounce at a faster rate or a slowerrate than the first bouncing icon, when the distance between the mobiledevice and the POI decreases or increases, respectively, between thefirst time and the second time.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein thesearch result identifies a POI which is nearby to the mobile device. 7.The method of claim 1, wherein the first directional icon and the seconddirectional icon are selected from among multiple directional icons. 8.The method of claim 1, further comprising accessing sponsored contentassociated with the POI, wherein: displaying, by the mobile device, thefirst directional icon for the POI at the first time further comprisesdisplaying the sponsored content associated with the POI.
 9. The methodof claim 1, wherein selecting, by the mobile device, a seconddirectional icon for the POI having a second rate of animation that isbased on the second distance to the POI at the second time comprisesselecting, by the mobile device, a bulls-eye or star-shaped directionalicon for the POI when the second distance between the mobile device andthe POI at the second time is less than a predetermined distance.
 10. Asystem comprising: one or more computers; and a computer-readable mediumcoupled to the one or more computers having instructions stored thereonwhich, when executed by the one or more computers, cause the one or morecomputers to perform operations comprising: accessing, by a mobiledevice, a search result identifying a point-of-interest (POI);selecting, by the mobile device, a first directional icon for the POIhaving a first rate of animation that is based on a first distance tothe POI at a first time; displaying, by the mobile device, the firstdirectional icon for the POI at the first time; selecting, by the mobiledevice, a second directional icon for the POI having a second rate ofanimation that is based on a second distance to the POI at a second timeand displaying, by the mobile device, the second directional icon forthe POI at the second time.
 11. A non-transitory computer storage mediumencoded with a computer program, the program comprising instructionsthat when executed by data processing apparatus cause the dataprocessing apparatus to perform operations comprising: accessing, by amobile device, a search result identifying a point-of-interest (POI);selecting, by the mobile device, a first directional icon for the POIhaving a first rate of animation that is based on a first distance tothe POI at a first time; displaying, by the mobile device, the firstdirectional icon for the POI at the first time; selecting, by the mobiledevice, a second directional icon for the POI having a second rate ofanimation that is based on a second distance to the POI at a second timeand displaying, by the mobile device, the second directional icon forthe POI at the second time.
 12. A computer-implemented methodcomprising: generating, by a server a search result identifying apoint-of-interest (POI); selecting, by the server, a first directionalicon for the POI having a first rate of animation that is based on afirst distance to the POI at a first time; generating, by the server, afirst code which, when invoked by the mobile device, causes the mobiledevice to display the first directional icon selected for the POI at thefirst time; selecting, by the server, a second directional icon for thePOI having a second rate of animation that is based on a second distanceto the POI at a second time; generating, by the server, a second codewhich, when invoked by the mobile device, causes the mobile device todisplay the second directional icon selected for the POI at the secondtime; and transmitting the first code and the second code from theserver to the mobile device.
 13. The method of claim 12, furthercomprising: receiving, at the server, a signal specifying a location ofthe mobile device, wherein the search result is generated based on thelocation of the mobile device.